Four organizational capabilities stand out as being of highest priority in the borderless workplace: Organizational Agility, Collaboration, Digital Know-How, Adaptable People. This TMA World presentation gives an overview of these capabilities and explains how they can be harnessed for competitive advantage. The information is taken from TMA World’s upcoming e-book:The Borderless Workplace: The critical4 capabilities for the new world of work, written by Terence Brake, Director of Learning and Innovation. Contact us to find out more: enquiries@tmaworld.com

1. The Critical4
Capabilities for
People Development
in the Borderless
Workplace
4

2. The Critical4 Capabilities for
People Development in the Borderless Workplace
This information is taken from TMA World’s upcoming e-
book:
The Borderless Workplace: The critical4 capabilities
for the new world of work
Written by Terence Brake, Director of Learning and
Innovation

3. The Critical4 Capabilities for
People Development in the Borderless Workplace
Four organizational capabilities stand out as being of
highest priority in the borderless workplace, where
digital technologies and multi-polar globalization drive
the business environment.

4. The Critical4 Capabilities for
People Development in the Borderless Workplace
1 2 3 4
Organizational Collaboration Digital Adaptable
Agility Know-How People

5. The Critical4 Capabilities for
People Development in the Borderless Workplace
1 Organizational Agility
Research at MIT shows that
agile firms grow revenue 37
Based on research by both percent faster and generate 30
McKinsey and The Economist
percent higher profits than non-
Intelligence Unit, 90 percent
of executives rank agile companies.
organizational agility as
critical to business success.

6. The Critical4 Capabilities for
People Development in the Borderless Workplace
The ability of an organization to
1 Organizational Agility change rapidly in response to
changes in the environment,
e.g. the emergence of new
competitors, disruptive
technologies and sudden
changes in market conditions.

7. The Critical4 Capabilities for
People Development in the Borderless Workplace
2 Collaboration
Technologies facilitate
collaboration, but they are
“ …collaboration is a
culture, not a set of
”
tools.
by no means sufficient.
Jim Whitehurst,
CEO of Red Hat

8. The Critical4 Capabilities for
People Development in the Borderless Workplace
The willingness and ability of
2 Collaboration networks of people and teams
to manage complex problems,
make decisions and innovate
by working together across
internal and external
boundaries.

9. The Critical4 Capabilities for
People Development in the Borderless Workplace
2 Collaboration
The story of Procter & Gamble (P&G) is telling.
In early 2000, the company’s share price had fallen nearly 50
percent, resulting in the loss of $85 billion in market
capitalization.
Despite huge spending on R&D, only 35 percent of new
products reached their financial objectives.

10. The Critical4 Capabilities for
People Development in the Borderless Workplace
2 Collaboration
The new CEO, A.G. Lafley, was confident that collaboration was
the key to the company’s future value. He wanted to make P&G
the company that:
“Collaborates inside and out, better than any company in
the world.”
A study showed that P&G’s most profitable innovations came
from internal collaborations across business units or from
external collaboration with researchers on the outside.

11. The Critical4 Capabilities for
People Development in the Borderless Workplace
2 Collaboration
Twenty cross-functional ‘communities of practice’ were
established within P&G and Lafley determined that 50 percent
of P&G’s products, ideas and technologies would be developed
externally.
By 2008, P&G had improved its R&D productivity by 60
percent and more than doubled its innovation success
rate.

12. The Critical4 Capabilities for
People Development in the Borderless Workplace
3 Digital Know-How
While face-to-face relationships
are, and always will be, important
in business, digital relationships
According to IBM: are increasing in significance,
“ The view that technology is
primarily a driver of
efficiency is outdated. CEOs
now see technology as an
digital relationships between
colleagues and also between the
enabler of collaboration & business and customers, partners,
relationships – those
essential connections that suppliers and distributors.
”
fuel creativity & innovation.
Leading Through Connections:
Insights from the IBM Global Chief
Executive Officer Study, 2012.

13. The Critical4 Capabilities for
People Development in the Borderless Workplace
The traditional view has always
3 Digital Know-How associated information technology
with efficiency and productivity,
but the real value lies in the
productive, value-added
relationships enabled by
technology.

14. The Critical4 Capabilities for
People Development in the Borderless Workplace
4 Adaptable People
The ability of people in an organization
to handle the uncertainties and
ambiguities that are inevitable when
vertical, horizontal, regional, national,
“ The single most common
challenge, selected by
56% of executives
polled, relates to the
professional, functional and linguistic
boundaries are crossed. Research
misunderstandings that
emerge as a result of points to managing cultural differences
cultural and language
differences from teams and language barriers as being
”
operating globally.
particularly challenging.
Managing Virtual Teams:
Taking a More Strategic Approach.
Economist Intelligence Unit, 2009.

15. The Critical4 Capabilities for
People Development in the Borderless Workplace
Based on these critical organizational capabilities, four
specific capabilities emerge for people development.
Read the up-coming e-book to learn more about the critical4
capabilities the individuals in your organization need to develop to
thrive in your organization.

16. The Critical4 Capabilities for
People Development in the Borderless Workplace
The critical4
Global 4 4
Collaborative Virtual 4 Cross-Cultural4
Working Working Working Working
People with People with People with People with
the thinking and the mindsets the ability to the adaptability
behavioral and skills to perform alone to bridge and
agility to manage and together leverage
produce high complex across differences
levels of problems, distances via between
performance in innovate and technologies individuals
a competitive achieve shared and groups
borderless goals
organization

17. The Critical4 Capabilities for
People Development in the Borderless Workplace
To learn more about how we can help your organization,
please contact us at
enquiries@tmaworld.com
or visit
http://www.tmaworld.com/training-solutions/