The document discusses designing adaptive careers. It suggests that when deciding if a personnel change is needed, organizations tend to only look at past poor performance, but the right time is when looking at future strategic and cultural fit. It also discusses that the human brain has not significantly changed in 10,000 years but jobs have, and building teams requires complementary skills not just similarity. Knowledge work can have a much larger variation in individual productivity than assembly line work. The document advocates developing talent through identifying strengths and areas for improvement through activities like stay interviews and regular career development discussions.

1. Designing
Adaptive
Careers
Marco Calzolari
Better Software 2015
twitter.com/marcocalzolari
linkedin.com/in/marcocalzolari

2. 1. Find your missing pieces
2. Present yourselfwithin group
3. Discuss sentences
4. Summarize to audience

3. …deciding when a people change is needed.
Now, we tend to make a people change when someone is
displaying poor performance. And it seems obvious, but
that’s not the right answer. First, it’s not the right answer
because there’s lots of research that shows that people
procrastinate.
There’s research by McKinsey and others that show that
90% of executives consider their organizations lousy at
removing poor performers. 90%! Can you imagine a soccer
team where you don’t remove 90% of the poor players?
So when should you make a people change? Not by looking
at the past performance, but by looking at the future.

4. Strategic fit:
some people are good for start-ups, some people are good
for turnarounds, some people are good for managing a
cyclical business.
Cultural fit or organizational fit:
there are some organizations that focus on the long term,
while others are focused on the short term. There are some
organizations that are hunters; others are farmers. There are
some organizations that work as a team; there are some
organizations that work individually.

5. we have this old brain for a new job
The human animal is two million years old, and our brain is
a piece of hardware that didn’t have any major upgrades for
the last 10,000 years. And you know, the decisions of the
primitive man when someone was approaching had to be
instant and unconscious, and they were based on whether
the person was similar to you, whether the person was
familiar to you, whether you felt comfortable.
Now, today, when you want to build great teams, what you
want is exactly the opposite to that set of criteria. You want to
have the value of complementary skills, which imply
diversity—which is the opposite of similarity or familiarity.

6. the knowledge-work productivity distribution
Despite the fact that we are very similarly gifted when it
comes to basic skills such as walking, when you get into
knowledge-work, the more complex the job, the larger the
spread in performance.
For example, if you go to a traditional line worker, or worker
on an assembly line, and you look at the productivity, you
would have a distribution. If the average productivity is 100
pieces per minute, you would have a standard deviation of
about 20%.
Now, the interesting thing in the knowledge-work world is
that standard deviation is not 20%, it can be 1200%!

7. GROW:
Identifying and
Fostering Talent
Daniel Goleman
Claudio Fernández-Aráoz
7

8. Basics & References8

9. What we talk about
when we talk
about TALENT

10. Defining TALENT
An individual's talent is the product of ability
(competence, education, training and experience),
coupled with motivation (engagement, satisfaction,
challenge and wellness) and opportunity.
(Van Dijk, 2008)
10

11. Defining TALENT
“Those individuals who can make a difference to
organisational performance, either through their
immediate contribution or in the longer term by
demonstrating the highest levels of potential”
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
11

12. 12Defining TALENT
Dave Ulrich
Human Asset Summit. Budapest, 25–26 October 2011.
COMPETENCE
Right person,
right place, right
time, right skills
COMMITMENT
Value proposition:
what do I give?
what do I get?
CONTRIBUTION
How can meaning
be created in the
organization?

13. Why they
don’t see my
talent at work?
– Me (20 yrs ago)

14. How can I
recognize all of
their talents?
– Me (today)

15. 15Stay Interview
“What will keep you here?”
Better understanding all of “your” people.
Demonstrate that you value them as human beings.
Encourage them to stay on your team.
Beverly Kaye, Sharon Jordan-Evans
Hello Stay Interviews, Goodbye Talent Loss
– Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2015

16. 16Exclusive / Inclusive
Exclusive group of people,
who had high potentials identified as “top talent”.
vs
Everyone has talent.
Potentials exist in more than a few people at the top.
MakeYour People BeforeYou MakeYour Products
PaulTurner, Danny Kalman – Wiley, 2014

17. 17Adaptive Organizations
Niels Pflaeging
Organize For Complexity
– Lightning Source Inc 2014

18. 18Adaptive Organizations
Niels Pflaeging
Organize For Complexity
– Lightning Source Inc 2014

19. 19Networked Careers
Employment should be an Alliance
Employee invest in the Company’s Success
Company invests in the Employees’ Market Value
Through Clear Missions with Realistic Time Horizons
Reid Hoffman, Ben Casnocha, ChrisYeh
The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age
– Harvard Business Review, 2014

20. 20Networked Careers
Dave Ulrich
Latest trends and strategies
in Talent Management, 2011

21. People
before Products
Employees
as customers
Konosuke Matsushita (1894-1989)
— Founder of Panasonic

22. Yet
Another
Goddamn
Canvas

23. Iterative Career Development 23
Proposition
Mentorship
Feedback
REVIEW

24. 24
PERSONAL VALUE PROPOSITION JOB TITLE
WHAT I LIKE
DON’T LIKE TOO MUCH
OVERALL
STRENGTHS
PURPOSES MAIN
ACTIVITIES
BETTER NOT
AREAS OF
IMPROVEMENT
NEEDS
MUTUAL COMMITMENTS OVERALL OUTCOMES

25. PERSONAL VALUE PROPOSITION JOB TITLE
WHAT I LIKE OVERALL
STRENGTHS
PURPOSES MAIN ACTIVITIES
AREAS OF
IMPROVEMENT
NEEDS
MUTUAL COMMITMENTS OVERALL OUTCOMES
PUBLIC
TRUST
INDIVIDUAL ORGANIZATIONAL
25

26. PERSONAL VALUE PROPOSITION JOB TITLE
WHAT I LIKE OVERALL
STRENGTHS
PURPOSES MAIN ACTIVITIES
AREAS OF
IMPROVEMENT
NEEDS
MUTUAL COMMITMENTS OVERALL OUTCOMES
26
AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMIC

27. PERSONAL VALUE PROPOSITION JOB TITLE
WHAT I LIKE OVERALL
STRENGTHS
PURPOSES MAIN ACTIVITIES
AREAS OF
IMPROVEMENT
NEEDS
MUTUAL COMMITMENTS OVERALL OUTCOMES
27
HINDSIGHT FORESIGHTINSIGHT

28. 28
PERSONAL VALUE PROPOSITION JOB TITLE
WHAT I LIKE
DON’T LIKE TOO MUCH
OVERALL
STRENGTHS
PURPOSES MAIN
ACTIVITIES
BETTER NOT
AREAS OF
IMPROVEMENT
NEEDS
MUTUAL COMMITMENTS OVERALL OUTCOMES

29. 29
PERSONAL VALUE PROPOSITION
WHAT I LIKE
DON’T LIKE TOO MUCH
OVERALL
STRENGTHS
PURPOSE
AREAS OF
IMPROVEMENT
NEEDS
MUTUAL COMMITMENTS OVERALL
Stuff you love
Activities you love doing. Tasks
that make you feel “in the flow”.
What you don’t like
too much
What duties are slowing you
down from improvement?

30. 30
Stuff you love
Activities you love doing. Tasks
that make you feel “in the flow”.
What you don’t like
too much
What duties are slowing you
down from improvement?

31. Strengths
Your biggest advantages.
What you can guarantee?
Areas of
improvement
About your weaknesses.
What do you feel you’re missing?
31
PERSONAL VALUE PROPOSITION
WHAT I LIKE
DON’T LIKE TOO MUCH
OVERALL
STRENGTHS
PURPOSE
AREAS OF
IMPROVEMENT
NEEDS
MUTUAL COMMITMENTS OVERALL

32. Strengths
Your biggest advantages.
What you can guarantee?
Areas of
improvement
About your weaknesses.
What do you feel you’re missing?

33. Purposes
What are your intents?
How you will improve
the whole company?
Needs
Ask for support.
You deserve tools, help
and development.
TION JOB TITLE
LL
GTHS
PURPOSES MAIN
ACTIVITIES
BETTER NOT
OF
EMENT
NEEDS
OVERALL OUTCOMES

34. Purposes
What are your intents?
How you will improve
the whole company?
Needs
Ask for support.
You deserve tools, help
and development.

35. TION JOB TITLE
LL
GTHS
PURPOSES MAIN
ACTIVITIES
BETTER NOT
OF
EMENT
NEEDS
OVERALL OUTCOMES
Activities
Tasks and functions
you should do. Interactions,
Responsibilities.
Better not doing
Things that we’d better
avoid in order to succeed.

36. Activities
Tasks and functions
you should do. Interactions,
Responsibilities.
Better not doing
Things that we’d better
avoid in order to succeed.

37. Organization Design
ON JOB TITLE
HS
PURPOSES MAIN
ACTIVITIES
BETTER NOTENT
NEEDS
OVERALL OUTCOMES

38. ON JOB TITLE
HS
PURPOSES MAIN
ACTIVITIES
BETTER NOTENT
NEEDS
OVERALL OUTCOMES
Organization Design

39. Organization Design

40. Organization Design

41. Organization Design

42. Virtual Hiring
ON JOB TITLE
HS
PURPOSES MAIN
ACTIVITIES
BETTER NOTENT
NEEDS
OVERALL OUTCOMES

43. Virtual Hiring
ON JOB TITLE
HS
PURPOSES MAIN
ACTIVITIES
BETTER NOTENT
NEEDS
OVERALL OUTCOMES

44. Job Title
Should be written on your business card.
Personal Value Proposition
Pitch yourself.
How we will be a better company because of you?
PERSONAL VALUE PROPOSITION JOB TITLE
WHAT I LIKE
DON’T LIKE TOO MUCH
OVERALL
STRENGTHS
PURPOSES MAIN
ACTIVITIES
BETTER NOT
AREAS OF
IMPROVEMENT
NEEDS

45. Job Title
Should be written on your business card.
Personal Value Proposition
Pitch yourself.
How we will be a better company because of you?

46. Mutual Commitments
How we will address issues and create opportunities?
Overall Outcomes
How will we know that we're both on an improvement path?
DON’T LIKE TOO MUCH BETTER NOT
AREAS OF
IMPROVEMENT
NEEDS
MUTUAL COMMITMENTS OVERALL OUTCOMES

47. Mutual Commitments
How we will address issues and create opportunities?
Overall Outcomes
How will we know that we're both on an improvement path?

48. Not to cover (for now)
Compensations
Rewards
Personal topics or preferences:
sex
religion
politics
soccer (in Italy)

49. 49
PERSONAL VALUE PROPOSITION JOB TITLE
WHAT I LIKE
DON’T LIKE TOO MUCH
OVERALL
STRENGTHS
PURPOSES MAIN
ACTIVITIES
BETTER NOT
AREAS OF
IMPROVEMENT
NEEDS
MUTUAL COMMITMENTS OVERALL OUTCOMES

50. Let’s share
Our Insights
(if any)

51. Marco Calzolari
Better Software 2015
twitter.com/marcocalzolari
linkedin.com/in/marcocalzolari
THANK
YOU
:-)