A Talentist

Beliefs and Principles

In the last post I previewed my goals for this blog. My design is to be explicit about what I am trying to achieve so that readers can give me feedback that helps me continuously improve. Of course not all feedback will be valuable, but when appropriate I will be explicit about what I accept and why. 

Beliefs

One way to ensure that we use our time wisely is to be explicit about what I believe to be true. I will start with my beleifs about hiring. If you don't share my beleifs, you likely won't accept my proposals for our shared goals and problems. If we aren't open to each other's beliefs, we will talk past each other, wasting time.

As with the rest of this blog post Reboot, I will evolve as I learn. As of now, my beliefs about the importance of hiring:

• Hiring the right person for a job is the most important thing you can do for your business, and one of the most important things you can do for for everyone who applied for the job.
• There are many reasons that businesses fail. But the most common, predictable and avoidable reason is bad hiring.
• Bad hiring is not bad luck. It is the predictable outcome of bad thinking and bad practices.

Please reflect and ask yourself whether you agree with these beleifs or not. If not, why? Your thoughts are welcome in the comments section.

Beleifs should lead to "principles", or basic truths or theories that clarify appropriate actions. I first tried to clarify the principles of Talentism almost 8 years ago. I believe most of those principles are still worthy of consideration. But they lacked rigor and cohesion, consistent with my overall observation about this blog in my last post.

Because principles are important to guiding change, I am going to approach their development differently than 8 years ago. I will introduce a concept that is consistent with my purpose, goals and beliefs. We will explore that concept together. When the principle related to the concept is clear to me, I will publish it. Of course I always reserve the right to change as I learn more and grow.

A final note: I understand that this is dry. There are three reasons for that:

• I am out of practice. It will take some time to find my voice.
• A broader audience requires a different approach. 
• My goal is sustained change. Emotion can start change, but rarey sustains it. Hearts and minds are needed. I am focusing on minds first.

Thank you for your patience as I improve.

Next Post: Reasons for Hiring Beliefs

Reboot

I had retreated from public engagement for over three years. During that time I studied, learned, and reflected deeply. I earned clarity on the purpose of my efforts. I am returning to the public arena with a commitment to teach, learn and build a community through this blog. 

Teach

The previous posts on this blog had a "howl at the moon" quality; a Rage Against the Machine approach that often detracted from goal of teaching. With this reboot, I am going to share what I know in more rigorous, thoughtful and expansive way. I will still direct my indiganation and satirical surpirse at the powers that be, but in another forum (yet to be determined). Thoughtful, open and committed readers should expect to be introduced to new thinking about the world of talent (i.e. human capital), and hold me accountable if I fail to deliver.

Learn

My purpose is to positvely change the world of talent. In order to do that, I am going to put more effort into atttacting great thinkers and builders to this brave new world. My goal is to increase the engagement of these "new pioneers" through this blog and learn through thouhtful, public reflection upon their wisdom. I expect this to lead to evolution in my thinking and knoweldge. 

Build a Community

There are many people who care about the world of talent. Most of those people don't have careers in the current field of human capital. My goal is to expand the boundaries of the community, providing a forum where people who are open to my beleifs can share their thoughts as well. I believe this will lead to opening the apperature on the world of human capital.

This blog is part of my new business (Talentism LLC). I want to accomplish the goals I have artciulated above, and at the same time create a space where my business can thrive. My design will be publicly reflect on realities but not solutions. Our current bad thinking arises from the lack of a shared goal and being in agreement on what problems stand in the way of achieving that goal. There can be great value in fostering and sustaining a spirited, open debate about our goals and problems (i.e. our reality). Occassionally I will even explore the roots of those problems, the motive force behind our reality rather than the symptoms. 

The solutions to those problems will be the domain of my business and will be offered through my products and services to my clients. But I won't lose sight of my over riding purpose: to posiitvely change the world of talent. I believe that having many people in agreement on the nature of the goals and problems is likely to lead to opportunity and innovation, expanding the talent economic pie, and therefore my piece of it. And so my hope is that someday soon I will have many excellent competitors, each with their own approach to helping their customers and clients, but all chipping away at a common set of opportunities.

Next Post: Beliefs and Principles