Monday, March 31, 2014

Workplace Redesign with John Hagel

It took me nearly nearly a year to get through posting notes from last year's South by Southwest, and now it's time to start over. Here's the first in many installments from my SxSW2014 adventures.

Presenter: John Hagel, Chairman, Center for the Edge, Deloitte
Hashtags: #WPRedesign

Hagel gave a great talk about work environments and his take on how we should be thinking about our employees. He said most businesses and organizations understand a need for talent recruitment and retention. The missing piece, Hagel argues, is talent development. What would the work environment look like if our top goal was to maximize talent development.

There was a lot of great food for thought in this talk, but my favorite part was his take on passion in the workplace. Hagel suggests what we need are passionate explorers. These workers have a long term commitment to a domain. They have a questing personality, and they actively seek out new opportunities. They have a connecting disposition: they seek out people to help when confronted with a challenge.

In the US, study found 11% of workers have this. "Engaged Employees" are happy with their jobs but often they don't want to change. These are not the same as "Passionate Explorers." Passionate explorers are often frustrated because they focus on how things could be improved.

Intrigued? The entire talk is now online.