Part 1 of two. Not how to do talent management, but how to read the one you have joined.
Two organisations. Both profitable, both leaders in their sector.
The first promotes by grade and tenure. Nobody’s increment differs from anybody else’s by more than three percent. Development is open to everyone. People stay fifteen years…
You run a quarterly engagement survey. It says people do not feel heard. You and your boss sit down to make sense of it and the whiteboard fills up fast: no culture of listening, not enough channels to speak up, managers who need to listen better, a loop you never closed from last time, leadership that is not visible enough, a…
What Ford’s turnaround really reveals about crisis, assumptions, and the limits of culture programs
In 2006, Ford was close to collapse. It was about to report a loss of $12.7 billion, the worst single year in its history, and over the next three years it would lose more than $30 billion. The company had become a set of warring…
It’s been 45 years since George T. Doran gave us the SMART framework. So why are we still struggling with the basics?
Last month, a practice leader – someone responsible for a team of fifty – reached out to me with a familiar request. “We need an L&D intervention on SMART goals,” she said. “I’ve sent multiple reminders. I’ve…
Why most competency frameworks collapse – and why the fix isn’t what you think
In twelve years of building competency frameworks across consulting, the public sector, and corporate environments, I have rarely seen one sustain cross-functional use. Frameworks get approved, socialised, and documented – but they do not get used…
Over the past few weeks, I found myself working deeply on a problem that sits at the intersection of strategy, governance, and human capital: how does a large organization systematically build a leadership pipeline that can withstand uncertainty? I was whiteboarding a succession planning and leadership development policy for a…
And what it doesn’t (spoilers ahead)
My husband introduced me to The Good Wife a few months ago and we catch an episode every day or two. We are about to finish Season 6 (Alicia just withdrew her nomination from the State’s Attorney’s race), and I’ve grown to love the twists and turns of the show.
One of the standout features…