I’ve been reading reports again, and I’m ready to make a prediction. You’re sitting there right now thinking about change. How to manage it, how to cope with it, how to create it.
OK, maybe you’re not thinking about that right now – there is a Super Bowl coming up – but according to a report I’ve just read from the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), change is a major issue for leaders like you in 2012. The new i4cp report, “The Best Gets Better: Critical Human Capital Issues of 2012,” was just released this week and is available now for free in the TrainingIndustry.com white papers section.
According to the report, based on a survey of more than 500 learning and business leaders, here are the five most critical issues for 2012:
- Leadership development
- Managing/coping with change
- Talent management
- Managing organizational change
- Succession planning
It would be interesting to hear if these resonate as strongly with you as with the survey respondents. But there’s a definite thread pulling all those issues together, the issue of change.
First of course is the leadership issue. Leaders are developed largely for that very purpose to harness, corral and lead change. Finally, succession planning rounds out the list; that’s fitting because change among leaders is as inevitable as change coming from leaders.
Right in the middle is talent management. Talent is managed to perform specific functions, of course, but talent is developed to excel and to grow. To change, in other words, to improve.
That leaves the separate but equal issues of managing/coping with change and managing organizational change. There’s no doubt some crossover in those sections, but whether you’re talking about preparing personnel to handle change or proactively initiating that change enterprise-wide, you need flexibility, adaptability and creativity.
Which brings us to another issue the report breaks out: Are you (and your organization) high performers or low performers. You know the basic difference: Speed and agility, just like with athletes. High performers, the report tells us, are 7 times more effective at managing learning and twice as effective at managing change.
According to the i4cp study, here are the top five issues when the data is crunched based on performance level. First, here’s how high performers view the world:
- Leadership development
- Succession planning
- Managing/coping with change
- Talent management
- Learning and development
Interesting, yes? Here’s what low performers focus on:
- Managing/coping with change
- Leadership development
- Managing organizational change
- Performance management
- Engagement
I think the message is clear: High performers are more comfortable with change and generally focus on bigger pictures. The low performers share many of the same concerns, but perhaps with a more tactical approach. No surprises basically, but certainly interesting.
What do you think? Is change something that causes stress for you, your team and/or your organization? Or is it just a wave to be carefully ridden?
What are the most critical issues on your horizon?
