Greetings and Happy Holidays. 

Although I’m not new to Bersin & Associates, I am the newest member of the Bersin & Associates research team and will be picking up Leighanne Levensaler’s research in Talent Management Strategy as well as HR and L&D Organization and Governance, and Business Metrics.  For the last three years I have had the honor of leading the company’s strategic services team, an amazing group of trusted advisors who help member organizations tackle tough business problems and apply our research within their companies daily.

I’ve worked with many members on a wide range of difficult and important talent challenges and HR initiatives – companies such as McDonalds, Cisco, GSK, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Rockwell Collins, McDermott, Pfizer, Toyota, Clorox, TD Bank and many more.  Our team has assisted with building learning strategies, creating integrated talent management roadmaps, developing talent management technology strategies, and building business alignment. 

As I take advantage of Bersin & Associates internal mobility options, I will miss working closely with my individual clients, but I’m very excited to begin working with the entire Bersin & Associates membership in my new areas of research. The general understanding of Talent Management has matured and expanded over the last several years, in great part due to the wonderful work done by our research team. As I step into my new role, we have plans to take our research in this space even further.  

Our research has now been able to show the critical impact Talent Management has on companies’ bottom lines, showing increased revenue per employee and reduced turn-over of high potentials. In the next year, I plan to continue that business focused research by bringing you more case studies and reports in these critical areas:

• Business metrics and analytics: How can we better measure our impact? How can we better meet the business needs?
• Talent strategy and planning: What are great examples of business driven strategies?
• High-Impact HR organizations: What do they look like? How do they support talent strategies?
• Employee engagement: What is its role in talent strategies? Where is this market going?
• Governance and people infrastructure: What works in business driven governance? How are HR organizations actually working in an integrated fashion?

In my work, I’ve observed that every HR and learning organization has bright, talented, and passionate professionals who want to help the people in their companies succeed. But, I’ve also observed that almost every organization shares a common challenge -- trying to do too much with too little. Time for real strategic thinking and planning is the activity most often sacrificed.  As I transition into my new role, I have shared some of the tips I’ve picked up over the years in my recent article “Seven Practical Tips for Building and Implementing Strategies.

The article is based on facilitating and participating in strategy sessions for many organizations, seeing their ideas through to implementation, and eventually watching them make real business impact.  The tips I’ve outlined have improved both the effectiveness of time spent on strategic planning as well as the business impact gained.

Below is a quick summary: click here for the full article.

• Business changes quickly; so should our ability to shift priorities.   Business change doesn’t stick to a schedule, so you can’t expect to do so either.  Your organization has to build flexibility into its strategy and operations.
• Take time to understand your current state environment and where it is headed.  When possible and relevant for discussion, create a visual representation so all parties can quickly understand. 
• Find strong facilitators and use them often. Excellent facilitators can make or break a tough meeting.  They’re worth their weight in gold.
• Consensus is not a dirty word. The value of building a common understanding that provides a clear direction and single focus for an organization can be extremely powerful and far outweighs the challenges.
• Executive briefings should always leave room for questions and changes.  People will take ownership more readily if they are allowed to comment and have some input.
• Be sure you’re speaking the language of your business counterparts.    Make sure you’re communicating in terms that resonate with your business and matches their language.
• What gets measured gets reported on; but only actions build culture. >Too often, reports are generated for compliance and C.Y.A. requirements, not as mechanisms for informing decisions that build culture.

I look forward to hearing from you with your thoughts and feedback.