How an organisation can ensure it has the right skills and abilities to achieve its future business strategies?

A Learning Organisation and Core Competencies

The difficulty that is usually cited when faced with this question is how to prepare people for a future that you can’t predict. One aspect that is perfectly predictable is that the organisation will be doing different things, or doing the same things differently, in the future. Therefore, you need to have people who can learn new skills, techniques, behaviours and ways of working. So – the way to ensure that an organisation is going to have the people it needs to deliver its strategies is to instil a learning culture. In one large organisation where I worked, we were faced with dramatic change and diversification, so we focused on getting as many people as possible into learning mode. We did this through opening up education opportunities, running lunchtime learning sessions, taking workshops on the road, setting up a good/accessible learning resource, training the managers in coaching skills, and running action learning projects – all designed to make learning accessible and part of every day life. You might find it useful to look at research on the learning organisation for some additional tips.

The other area that springs to mind is Core Competencies (Hamel & Prahalad). Successful organisations remain competitive by continually honing their core competencies (e.g. Honda – engine design). They will always need great talent in the core competency areas. Therefore, can you focus on what at the core competencies for the organisation you are looking at, and identify some strategies for attracting, retaining and motivating the best talent to keep these core competencies ahead of the competition.

Hope this gives you some initial food for thought.

2 Responses

janem says:

March 4, 2010 at 9:16 am

A Learning Organisation and Core Competencies

The difficulty that is usually cited when faced with this question is how to prepare people for a future that you can’t predict. One aspect that is perfectly predictable is that the organisation will be doing different things, or doing the same things differently, in the future. Therefore, you need to have people who can learn new skills, techniques, behaviours and ways of working. So – the way to ensure that an organisation is going to have the people it needs to deliver its strategies is to instil a learning culture. In one large organisation where I worked, we were faced with dramatic change and diversification, so we focused on getting as many people as possible into learning mode. We did this through opening up education opportunities, running lunchtime learning sessions, taking workshops on the road, setting up a good/accessible learning resource, training the managers in coaching skills, and running action learning projects – all designed to make learning accessible and part of every day life. You might find it useful to look at research on the learning organisation for some additional tips.

The other area that springs to mind is Core Competencies (Hamel & Prahalad). Successful organisations remain competitive by continually honing their core competencies (e.g. Honda – engine design). They will always need great talent in the core competency areas. Therefore, can you focus on what at the core competencies for the organisation you are looking at, and identify some strategies for attracting, retaining and motivating the best talent to keep these core competencies ahead of the competition.

Hope this gives you some initial food for thought.
User deleted says:

March 6, 2010 at 7:23 pm

Scenario Planning

Hi

why not suggest that the senior managers go on an away day and do some scenario planning for their business. This exercise will identify possible alternative futures for the business. Then the leaders can work backwards and identify the skills their managers will need.

For example, if the business leaders predict a possible future where the company will be expanding overseas and expanding via mergers and acquisitions then the skills the company managers will need in the future may be languages, cultural awareness, change management, financial acumen etc etc.

If you google ‘scenario planning’ you will get lots of information on this technique.

Regards

Ranjit