“Resist any attempt to put people into boxes. People only belong in boxes when they are dead. If you must use boxes, do so only to focus their attention on development needs; not as a means of making judgements about their promotability.”


Clutterbuck at the recent ASTD conference


So how come we have been seduced into accepting all this “HR bling” as valid and helpful? The reasons stem from top management’s desire to measure anything that moves and HR’s desperate need to prove that it adds value. And the system does work, in the sense that, if you identify a particular group and give them lots of opportunities to experience and to learn, they are likely to advance faster than less privileged colleagues. But that does not prove that these were the most talented employees. In reality, those people may have taken the hint and gone off to work elsewhere, often for themselves, where their talent is appreciated.


Another powerful reason is that all of these systems are based on a major misunderstanding about the nature of the relationship between talented employees and employers. The underlying assumption is that this relationship is a simple, linear system. You


put your money in the machine, press the right buttons and out come the future leaders your organisations need.


Nothing could be further from the truth! In


reality, organisations and their employees form a complex, adaptive system. People and organisations are constantly changing, so the relationship between an organisation and its talent is dynamic and evolving.


Set your talent free


Among the rules of how complex, adaptive systems work is that they: • Are emergent. In the new vision of succession planning, the aim is less to fit employees into a grand plan, than to channel their energies and ambitions, encouraging the development of “deep capabilities” and trusting that the creative ferment will deliver the right person at the right time, most of the time.


May 2012 | Management Today 65


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