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In a world of information overload and filter-failure, I focus on helping HR students and young professionals by curating insights about what matters in the world of work, the new talent agenda and fueling curiosity. Welcome to smarter!

HRHeadStart #70: Talent Mapping; Creative Thinking

Apr 25, 2023

The Talent Agenda

The most common framework for talent mapping is probably the 9-box grid. The grid is used to plot talent based on their performance and potential.

9 Box Grid for Leadership Development Plan

While the framework is hailed by many as being useful, I have heard contradictory feedback from business and HR leaders over the years. For instance, many find it incredibly hard to group employees into 9 categories and meaningfully differentiate talent. Others feel the process can be overly subjective and not fact-based.

The purpose of talent mapping is to identify talent which can help to execute the business strategy and create outsized business value. And in turn, planning effectively for their growth and development. It doesn’t matter how many “boxes” the framework has as long as it can enable meaningful talent conversations and help leaders make differentiated choices on investing in talent.

Check out this article to explore talent mapping considerations in more details. There’s also a lot of interest in evolving to a skills-based talent mapping approach. This article provides insights on how to go about it.

Working Better

We all want to be the person who comes up with creative ideas to solve problems. But how could we build this ideation muscle? In this compelling talk by Adam Grant, you will learn how everyone can challenge the status quo, come up with original ideas and make an impact. Some insights that you might enjoy:

Moderate levels of procrastination allows us to come up with unconventional ideas.
The first mover advantage is a myth; what matter is the ability to come up with different and better ideas even if you are building on others’ ideas.
Original thinkers have a mindset of rejecting the default option and exploring alternatives.
The best thinkers actually have a large number of bad ideas. They fail the most because they try the most. But they increase the probability of coming up with a winning idea by continuously trying out new ways of doing things.

Tiny Thought

What is the one area where the cost of failing is inconsequential in relation to the value you can create?