Agile Talent: How to Source and Manage Outside Experts

by Jon Younger, Norm Smallwood, Marshall Goldsmith (Foreword by)

Overview

How to Leverage Talent You Don’t Own

Campbell Soup Company and PepsiCo seek advice from anthropologists to understand customer tastes and preferences. Google and Intel engage experts in social science and biomechanics to assess how people think about and use technology.

Companies are gaining advantage through a new capability—strategic use of external experts—made possible by technology and the globalization of talent. Leaders everywhere recognize that “lean,” “agile,” and “fast” strategies require new ways to access and leverage—without owning—key talent to fill critical gaps. As managers seek nontraditional sources of strategic talent and experiment with fast, flexible ways of engaging these experts, they need a new roadmap.

This book delivers that roadmap. It tells you how to assess, choose, attract, develop, support, and retain your external talent. Authored by thought leaders and bestselling authors in leadership and talent management who teach and consult globally, Agile Talent reveals how companies such as Apple, Uber, Airbnb, Google, IBM, and Bain Capital organize and manage new forms of talent in innovative ways. Supported by survey data and packed with tools and templates for applying these ideas, this book is the ultimate guide for winning the next war for talent.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781625277633
Publisher:	Harvard Business Review Press
Publication date:	02/16/2016
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Jon Younger is partner emeritus of the RBL Group, where he led the firm’s Strategic HR practice. He is a member of the executive education faculties of the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan; Indian School of Business; and the Copenhagen School of Business. He chairs the annual ISB-NHRD conference on talent management in India and is a member of the Government of Singapore advisory board in HR Transformation. He teaches and consults widely in North America, Europe, and Asia. He is a coauthor of many articles and four books: HR from the Outside In, HR Transformation, HR Competencies, and Global HR Competencies.

Norm Smallwood is President and cofounder of RBL Group, and leads the firm’s Leadership practice. He has taught in the executive education faculties of the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, and the Marriott School of Business, Brigham Young University. He has been cited by the journal Leadership Excellence as a leading voice in the field of leadership. He teaches and consults widely in North America, the Middle East, and Asia. He is the coauthor of many articles and several important leadership books including Results Based Leadership, Leadership Brand, Leadership Code, and Leadership Sustainability.

Table of Contents

Foreword Marshall Goldsmith vii

1 Achieving Competitive Advantage Through Agile Talent 1

Trends, Opportunities, and Challenges

2 Defining the Opportunity 25

Assessing How Agile Talent Benefits Your Organization

3 Refining the Strategy 45

Choosing the Right Approach to Agile Talent

4 Attracting and Welcoming Agile Talent 65

Orienting External Talent to Your Organization

5 Ensuring Professional Excellence 89

Growing Talent That You Don't Even Own

6 Engaging and Collaborating with Your Talent 111

Supporting Your Teams of Internals and Externals

7 Leading Agile Talent 131

Understanding the Skills You Need and How to Apply Them

8 Leading the Change 151

Driving Innovation in How Your Organization Manages Talent

9 Turning What We Know into What We Do 169

Making Agile Talent Work

Appendix 193

Notes 201

Index 207

Acknowledgments 217

About the Authors 219

Editorial Reviews

“Agile Talent is an interesting read in this emerging business context where cloud sourcing (getting external talent) is now becoming a differentiated business strategy... a practical roadmap for leaders to create conditions for maximising engagement, performance and contribution of external talent.” — Businessworld India

“This well-researched book will prove interesting not only to chief executives and HR leaders, but to the many people now operating in the gig economy who will hope that some of its key messages resonate with those who employ them.” — Irish Times

“Readers will learn how to make a business case for hiring external talent, orient them to their organizations, offer them professional development, and optimize teamwork between them and permanent, full-time employees.” — TD magazine (Association for Talent Development)

ADVANCE PRAISE for Agile Talent:

Todd M. Warner, former VP, Learning, BHP Billiton, and Founder, Like Minds Advisory—
“Agile Talent represents a whole new way for organizations to work across their value chain and optimize the performance of the people who work for (and with) them to reach new levels of productivity.”

Omar Kader, Chairman and CEO, Paltech—
“This book presents a clear and effective description of how all businesses need to function in the future—or be left behind.”

Susan J. Schmitt, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Rockwell Automation—
“This book is relevant, practical, and immediately applicable to anyone reading it, whether you are a CEO, a chief HR officer, a leader at any level, or a shareholder.”

Kevin Murphy, CEO, Driscoll’s—
“Agile Talent allows for specialization and entrepreneurial spirit to flourish.”

Shelley Seifert, Chief Administrative Officer, First Bank—
“Younger and Smallwood challenge every reader to break free from our typical tactics and instead think strategically and holistically about how to approach external staffing.”

Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, Executive Vice President and Global Chief Human Resources Officer, Walgreens Boots Alliance—
“Agile Talent provides a rarely found treasure trove of experiences and practical solutions to create an agile workforce that meets an organization’s particular needs.”

Kirk Aubry, President and CEO, Savage—
“How do we get the full benefit of having the best people where and when we need them—even though they’re not on our payroll? This book provides a roadmap for navigating to new and powerful workforce relationships.”

From the Publisher

02/01/2016
Younger (coauthor, HR from the Outside In) and Smallwood (coauthor, Leadership Sustainability) are partner emeritus and cofounder, respectively, of the RBL Group, a human resources consulting organization. Here they lay out the demands placed on contemporary organizations with a workforce that can be mobile, project driven, and independent. Thus, in organizations where the most important assets can latterly walk away, there are few ways to get it right and many to get it wrong. The book may be considered the descendant of Peter F. Drucker's Management and Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman Jr.'s In Search of Excellence. With a textbook-like feel, it contains strong suite tables that capture the essence of the text. While there is a bias toward tech, almost every organization faces the reality that some tasks are best left to those with special expertise. In a number of cases this may be the more familiar consultant role, in others it could be outsourcing, or project driven. VERDICT The challenge addressed in this work is how organizations can best manage their experts—like all DIY books, read before need.—Steven Silkunas, Fernandina Beach, FL

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