Filed under: Human Capital, Talent in Business and the Professions, Talent in Organisations
I thought it would still be some time before science was brought into the workplace to identify such things as, for example, the causes of more productive behaviour or greater team effectiveness.
Not so. The latest edition of The Economist has run a story on an ingenious scientific experiment that has sought to do just that - with fascinating results. The story can be read here.
Filed under: Human Capital, Talent in Asia, Talent in Business and the Professions, Talent in Organisations
Talent Talk
‘It’s a company that really really cares for its employees…’
‘What I love about working here is the energy of the people. People are so motivated and have so many ideas…’
‘People come from all over the country to work here…’
Filed under: Talent in Sport, What is Talent?
Speculation is brewing that a legendary sporting name may be about to return to Formula 1.
Bruno Senna, nephew of the great Ayrton Senna, is cutting the mustard in GP2 (the feeder series for Formula 1) and looks set to move onto higher things.
Filed under: Talent in Business and the Professions, Talent in Organisations
‘We must be more innovative!’
It’s a familiar cry in companies, and often comes from the CEO. But the sorry fact is that innovation is something many companies do not do particularly well.
This may come as a surprise to the casual observer, since many of these companies spend tens of millions of dollars in targeted recruitment every year - but fast forward to the year end, and the situation remains stubbornly the same. A lack of innovation.
The Big Deal about Innovation
Filed under: Human Capital, Talent in Organisations
‘Too much intelligence and energy is being devoted to scraping the crumbs off the table of capitalism instead of preparing the meal.’
If there ever was an epithet that sums up the failings of capitalism, Warren Buffett’s comes pretty close.
In previous Talks we’ve looked at the make-up of entrepreneurs and the impact of ‘The System’ on one’s individual talent. In this Talk we combine the two themes and ask whether the way the economic system is run rewards the right values. Does the economic system encourage creation, a ‘preparing of the meal’, or does it lend itself to incrementalism, a ’scraping the crumbs off the table’?
Filed under: Talent in Business and the Professions, What is Talent?
I have just finished reading Michael Masterson’s Ready, Fire, Aim, which takes the reader through the exciting and sometimes perilous stages of business growth.
It’s a great read for anyone with a small, medium or large business (he covers all the stages of growth), and I’d also strongly recommend it to anyone in a managerial position faced with the kind of challenges that all businesses face from time to time.
This Talk is not about business, however. Instead I’m interested in the kind of qualities and skills that Masterson has highlighted which, he says, are essential for success as an entrepreneur.
Filed under: What is Talent?
‘To be nobody but yourself when the world is trying its best night and day to make you somebody else is to fight the hardest battle any human will fight.’
So wrote the poet EE Cummings.
The quest for authenticity is high on the agenda among social philosophers today. Positive psychology has been in the ascendant for at least two decades now (and rightly so, in my view), while the search for ‘Happiness’ has been making headlines and selling books at an unprecedented rate.
But what exactly did Cummings mean when he wrote that ‘the world’ was trying night and day to make us ’somebody else’?
