A personal rant against the War for Talent.
I have always been troubled by the so called “war for talent.” Now, I am beyond troubled, I am angry with the use of this metaphor for those of us who offer our best in organizations.
For example a Fast Company article on the war for talent stated:
According to a yearlong study conducted by McKinsey Co., the most important corporate resource over the next 20 years will be talent. It’s also the resource in shortest supply. Are you ready to fight for your fair share? … The McKinsey team is blunt about what will result from these trends: Its report is titled “The War for Talent.” The search for the best and the brightest will become a constant, costly battle, a fight with no final victory. Not only will companies have to devise more imaginative hiring practices; they will also have to work harder to keep their best people.
How does this fit with Citigroup cutting 11,000 jobs?
Why do we refer to getting good people as a war? Do you really see the workplace as a battleground?
Think about just a few of the implications of this very troubling metaphor for work and best performance:
- people are killed in wars
- there are huge social and economic costs
- there are casualties
- wars can go on for a very long time
- soldiers returning from war often have a number of transition challenges
- much is destroyed
Perhaps one constructive shred coming out of the economic upheaval will be an end to the war metaphor. If we keep thinking of work as war we don’t seem so fazed by the casualties – job loss and organizational failure can be dismissed as just another casualty of the war.
Make Love Not War:
- Let’s make love not war.
- Let’s remember to care about everyone we work with.
- Let’s work hard to create a connected community that works together for the betterment of all.
- Let’s use tough love and hold the economic generals accountable for their actions.
Let’s remember that love doesn’t mean being mushy, holding hands, and singing Kumbaya around the conference table — it means having the discipline, concentration, and patience to make the workplace a safe place to create results and enhance relationships.
If you insist on using a war metaphor, the war we truly need to wage is not for talent — it is for integrity, trust, respect, authenticity, empathy, and caring in a workplace that also gets the job done!
How about if we spent the “war” time, effort, and other resources on creating the talent that we need? It seems to me there is a lot of latent talent lying in wait that could be developed by using the effort required to get out-of-the-box, turnkey talent.
It also seems to me that using the word talent is a sad development. The talent is a person … with all the things that come with people. Talent seems so machine like and people are not machines no matter how much we’d like them to be.
I’m with you … no more war.
Dean,
Thank you so much for joining the “peace” movement. I also appreciate your focus on the word talent for people. We are expendable when we are just talent or resources. And I don’t want people to be machines. It is not so bad to hear a scream rather than always looking into a screen.
David
Hi, David,
IMHO, the use of the descriptor “talent” when referring to folks is simply another aspect of framing humans as “robots” and/or “functions”…devoid of any ‘human’ qualities…the same as when we refer to our partner, or spouse, not by name but by “wife” or “husband”…it’s all about consciously or unconsciously objectifying someone. For manay, this objectification absolves them from their own discomfort with having to experience their emotional self.
Peter:
It is interesting how we often want to refer to humans as objects. I think it makes it easier to not treat them well at times and saves us from emotional connections…which may be no savings at all.
David
What a neat post! I’m so with you on this. I HATE all the ways our media uses war as an analogy. Seems like its everywhere. Talent may indeed be harder to find and keep…but that’s because the corporate workplace of today is often a joke.
Most of the big corporations are so political, so focused on profits vs. doing the right thing, that it’s no wonder many really Talented people choose to have their own businesses.
I think all the big layoffs are in great part due to the greedy and corrupt people running the big corporations today. And in part due to the horrible legislation we in the U.S. have that requires corporations to show profits or they could actually be sued by the shareholders!
I’ve actually consulted with CitiGroup/CitiBank – I would rather slice a vein than work there!
: )
Ariane:
You say it quite strongly. Hopefully the other side of this crisis is the ability to create caring and profitable organizations – organized around community rather than just commerce.
David
“If you insist on using a war metaphor, the war we truly need to wage is not for talent — it is for integrity, trust, respect, authenticity, empathy, and caring in a workplace that also gets the job done!”
If management does not recognize this, then there will never be employee engagement. Integrity means more than mouthing the words; it means living what the words mean.
Average talent, with management integrity, will do far more more than superior talent with mouthing “employees make a competitive difference.”
Also.