Tom Peters’

The

Talent30Employers Resource Council/

NorthCoast 99 Awards/ 09.10.2002

The Talent30

1. People first!1A. Soft is Hard.2. P.O.T. = Obsession.3. HR sits at The Head Table.3A. HR is “cool.”4. Re-name “HR.”5. There’s an HR Strategy.

“The leaders of Great Groups love talent and know where to find it. They revel in

the talent of others.”Warren Bennis & Patricia Ward Biederman,

Organizing Genius

“Soft” Is “Hard”

- ISOE

Model 25/8/53

Sports Franchise GM

Whoops: Jack didn’t have a vision!

ChicagoNovember 1999:

HRMAC

“support function” / “cost center” / “bureaucratic

drag”

or …

You are “Rock Stars of the

Age of Talent”

Have you changed

civilization today?Source: HP banner ad

Les Wexner: From sweaters to people!

Talent Department

The Talent30

6. HR Strategy = Business Strategy.7. We are in an Age of Talent/ Creativity/ Intellectual-capital Added.8. Make it a Game Worth Playing.

“No longer are we only an insurance provider. Today,

we also offer our customers the products and services that help them

achieve their dreams, whether it’s financial security, buying a car, paying

for home repairs, or even taking a dream vacation.”—Martin Feinstein, CEO,

Farmers Group

Was: Bunch of Guys Who Make Circuit Breakers Division.

Is: GE Industrial Systems.

G.H.: “Create a ‘cause,’ not a ‘business.’ ”

Leaders don’t just make products and make decisions.

Leaders make meaning. – John Seeley Brown

“I never, ever thought of myself

as a businessman. I was interested in creating

things I would be proud of.” —Richard Branson

“Let’s make a dent in the universe.”

Steve Jobs

The Talent30

9. Sky High Standards.10. Enlist everyone in Challenge2002.11. Pursue the Best!12. Up or Out.13. Pay!

“If you don’t like change, you’re going

to like irrelevance even less.” —General Eric

Shinseki, Chief of Staff, U. S. Army

“If there is nothing very special about

your work, no matter how hard you apply yourself, you won’t get noticed, and that

increasingly means you won’t get paid much either.”

Michael Goldhaber, Wired

108 X 5vs.

8 X 1= 540 vs. 8 (-98.5%)

IBM’s Project

eLiza!** “Self-bootstrapping”/ “Artilects”

From “1, 2 or you’re out” [JW] to …

“Best Talent in each industry segment to build

best proprietary intangibles” [EM]

Source: Ed Michaels, War for Talent

“We believe companies can increase their market cap 50 percent in 3 years. Steve

Macadam at Georgia-Pacific changed 20 of his 40 box plant managers to put

more talented, higher paid managers in charge. He increased profitability from $25 million to $80 million

in 2 years.”

Ed Michaels, War for Talent

“Top performing companies are two to four times more likely

than the rest to pay what it takes to prevent losing

top performers.”

Ed Michaels, War for Talent (05.17.00)

The Talent30

14. Training I: Train! Train! Train!14A. TII: 100% “business people.”14B. TIII: 100% Leaders.14C. TIV: Boss-as Trainer.15. Open Communication. (Open = Open. Damn it.)

“Knowledge becomes obsolete incredibly fast. The

continuing professional education of adults is the

No. 1 industry in the next 30 years … mostly on line.”

Peter Drucker,Business 2.0 (22August2000)

26.3

3 Weeks in May

“Training” & Prep: 187“Work”: 41

(“Other”: 17)

1% vs.

367%

Divas do it. Violinists do it. Sprinters do it. Golfers do it.

Pilots do it. Soldiers do it. Surgeons do it. Cops do it.

Astronauts do it. Why don’t businesspeople do it?

“I start with the premise that the

function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more

followers.”—Ralph Nader

Brand You, Big Time!

I AM AN ARMY OF

ONE

“The organizations we created have become tyrants. They have taken

control, holding us fettered, creating barriers that hinder rather than help our businesses. The lines that we drew on our neat organizational diagrams have turned into walls

that no one can scale or penetrate or even peer over.” —Frank Lekanne Deprez &

René Tissen, Zero Space: Moving Beyond Organizational Limits

“Supply Chain” 2000:

“When Joe Employee at Company X launches his browser, he’s taken to Company X’s personalized

home page. He can interact with the entire scope of Company X’s world – customers, other employees, distributors, suppliers, manufacturers, consultants. The browser – that is, the portal – resembles a My

Yahoo for Company X and hooks into every network associated with Company X. The real trick is that Joe

Employee, business partners and customers don’t have to be in the office. They can log on from a cell phone, Palm Pilot, pager or home office system.”

Red Herring (09.2000)

The Talent30

16. Respect!16A. Places of “grace.”17. MBWA: The “Rudy Rule.”18. Thank You!19. Promote for “people skills.” (ALL ELSE IS SECONDARY.)20. Honor youth.

“It was much later that I realized Dad’s secret. He gained respect by giving it. He

talked and listened to the fourth-grade kids in Spring Valley who shined shoes the same way he talked and listened to a

bishop or a college president. He was seriously interested in who you were and what you had to say.”

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect

“Leaders are living individuals whom employees smell, feel, touch their

presence.”#49

“My favorite word is grace –

whether it’s amazing grace,

saving grace, grace under

fire, Grace Kelly. How we live contributes to beauty – whether it’s how we treat other people or

the environment.”

Celeste Cooper, designer

Rodale’s on “Grace” …

elegance … charm … loveliness … poetry in motion … kindliness ..

benevolence … benefaction … compassion … beauty

Rudy!

“The deepest human

need is the need to be appreciated.”

William James

“The two most powerful things

in existence: a kind word and a thoughtful gesture.”

Ken Langone, CEO, Invemed Associates [from Ronna Lichtenberg, It’s Not Business, It’s Personal]

33 Division Titles. 26 League Pennants. 14

World Series: Earl Weaver—0. Tom Kelly—0. Jim Leyland—0.

Walter Alston—1AB. Tony LaRussa—132 games, 6 seasons. Tommy Lasorda—P, 26 games. Sparky

Anderson—1 season.

“Why focus on these late teens and twenty-

somethings? Because they are the first young who are both in a position to change the world, and are actually doing so. … For the first time in history,

children are more comfortable, knowledgeable and literate than their parents about an

innovation central to society. … The Internet has triggered the first industrial revolution in history

to be led by the young.”

The Economist [12/2000]

8 Minutes*

—Dr. Sugata Mira, NIIT/ New Delhi/ 1999**

*Ignorance to Surfing**And then there’s oya yubi sedai, the “thumb generation”

The Talent30

21. Diversity!22. Diversity starts on the Board of Directors.23. WOMEN RULE.24. Weird Wins.25. We are all unique.

“Diversity defines the health and wealth of nations in a new

century. Mighty is the mongrel. The hybrid is hip. The impure, the mélange, the adulterated, the

blemished, the rough, the black-and-blue, the mix-and-match – these people are inheriting the earth.

Mixing is the new norm. Mixing trumps isolation. It spawns creativity, nourishes the human spirit, spurs

economic growth and empowers nations.”

G. Pascal Zachary, The Global Me: New Cosmopolitans and the Competitive Edge

CM Prof Richard Florida on

“Creative Capital”: “You cannot get a technologically

innovative place unless it’s open to weirdness,

eccentricity and difference.”

Source: New York Times/06.01.2002

“Where do good new ideas come from? That’s simple! From

differences. Creativity comes from unlikely juxtapositions.

The best way to maximize differences is to mix ages, cultures and

disciplines.”

Nicholas Negroponte

“AS LEADERS, WOMEN RULE: New Studies find that female managers

outshine their male counterparts in almost

every measure”Title, Special Report, Business Week, 11.20.00

“American women possess leadership abilities that are particularly effective in today’s organizations, yet their abilities remain undervalued and underutilized. In the future, what will distinguish one

organization and one country from another will be its use of human

resources. Today human resource utilization is not only a matter of social

justice but a bottom-line issue.”

Judy Rosener, America’s Competitive Secret

Women’s Strengths Match New Economy Imperatives: Link [rather than rank] workers;

favor interactive-collaborative leadership style [empowerment beats top-down decision making]; sustain fruitful collaborations; comfortable with sharing information; see redistribution of power

as victory, not surrender; favor multi-dimensional feedback; value technical & interpersonal skills, individual & group contributions equally; readily accept ambiguity; honor intuition as well as pure

“rationality”; inherently flexible; appreciate cultural diversity.

Source: Judy B. Rosener, America’s Competitive Secret

“Women speak and hear a language of connection and intimacy, and men

speak and hear a language of status and independence. Men communicate to obtain information, establish their

status, and show independence. Women communicate to create

relationships, encourage interaction, and exchange feelings.”

Judy Rosener, America’s Competitive Secret

63 of 2,500 top earners in F500

8% Big 5 partners

14% partners at top 250 law firms

43% new med students; 26% med

faculty; 7% deans

Source: Susan Estrich, Sex and Power

Opportunity!

U.S. G.B. E.U. Ja.

M.Mgt. 41% 29% 18% 6%

T.Mgt. 4% 3% 2% <1%

Peak Partic. Age 45 22 27 19

% Coll. Stud. 52% 50% 48% 26%

Source: Judy Rosener, America’s Competitive Secret

“Would Congress [the Boardroom] be a different place if half the members

were women?”

From Sex and Power, Susan Estrich

The Cracked Ones Let in the Light

“Our business needs a massive transfusion of talent, and talent, I believe, is most likely to be found

among non-conformists, dissenters and rebels.”

David Ogilvy

Deviants, Inc. “Deviance tells the story of every mass

market ever created. What starts out weird and dangerous

becomes America’s next big corporate payday. So are you looking for the next mass market idea? It’s out there … way

out there.”

Source: Ryan Matthews & Watts Wacker, Fast Company (03.02)

Beware Lurking HR Types … One size

NEVER fits all. One size fits one. Period.

48 Players = 48 Projects =

48 different success measures.

The Talent30

26. Bosses “win people over.”27. Adventures of Mutual Discovery.27A. Re-name HR.28. Foster Independence.29. Enthusiasm!

WHAT AN IDIOT: “Instead of employees being in the driver’s

seat, now we’re in the driver’s seat.”

PJ: “Coaching is winning

players over.”

Leaders-Teachers Do Not “Transform People”!

Instead leaders-mentors-teachers (1) provide a context which is marked by (2) access to a luxuriant portfolio of meaningful opportunities (projects) which

(3) allow people to fully (and safely, mostly—caveat: “they”

don’t engage unless they’re “mad about something”) express their innate curiosity and (4) engage in a vigorous

discovery voyage (alone and in small teams, assisted by an

extensive self-constructed network) by which those people (5) go to-create places they (and their mentors-teachers-

leaders) had never dreamed existed—and then the leaders-mentors-teachers (6) applaud like hell, stage

“photo-ops,” and ring the church bells 100 times to commemorate the bravery of their

“followers’ ” explorations!

I am inalterably opposed to “organization change,”

“empowerment,” “motivation.” The goal: to awaken the latent talent

already within, by providing opportunities worthy of the

individual’s investment of her or his most precious resources …

time and emotional commitment.

“H.R.” to “H.E.D.” ???

Human

Enablement

Department

“Firms will not ‘manage the careers’ of their employees. They

will provide opportunities to enable the employee to develop

identity and adaptability and

thus be in charge of his or her own career.”

Tim Hall et al., “The New Protean Career Contract”

“Ninety percent of what we call ‘management’ consists of making it

difficult for people to get things done.” – P.D.

BZ: “I am a … Dispenser of Enthusiasm!”

“When assessing candidates, the first thing I looked for was energy and

enthusiasm for execution. Does she talk about the thrill of getting things

done, the obstacles overcome, the role her people played—or does she keep

wandering back to strategy or philosophy?” —Larry Bossidy,

Honeywell/AlliedSignal, in Execution

“A leader is a dealer in hope.”

Napoleon

(+TP’s writing room pics)

Hackneyed but none the less

true: LEADERS SEE CUPS AS “HALF

FULL.”

Half-full Cups: “[Ronald Reagan] radiated an almost transcendent

happiness.”Lou Cannon, George (08.2000)

The Talent30

30. Talent = Brand.

“WHO ARE WE?”

“WHAT’S OUR

STORY?”

“EXACTLY HOW ARE WE

DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT?”

What’s your company’s …

EVP?Employee Value Proposition, per Ed

Michaels et al., The War for Talent

EVP = Challenge, professional growth, respect, satisfaction, opportunity, reward

Source: Ed Michaels et al., The War for Talent

The Top 5 “Revelations”

Better talent wins.

Talent management is my job as leader.

Talented leaders are looking for the moon and stars.

Over-deliver on people’s dreams – they are volunteers.

Pump talent in at all levels, from all conceivable sources, all the time.

Source: Ed Michaels et al., The War for Talent

MantraM3

Talent = Brand