What is Talent Dynamics and what does it do?

Wow, so much has happened in the short space of 2 weeks, since Jan and I ran the first Talent Dynamics Pilot Workshop!! So many people have been asking me for more information, so over the next few days I will be sharing my experience of the past few weeks and answering some of those questions...

The main questions Im being asked are: What is Talent Dynamics and What are the Pilot Particpants saying about it?

What is Talent Dynamics?

Click here to see video on Talent Dynamics http://tinyurl.com/yz7gn2f

Talent Dynamics is the first ever integrated training system that actually links Team Performance to Company Profitability, Sustainability and also Corporate Social Responsibility. It actually has strategies to implement at an individual, team and at an organisational level to achieve those outcomes.

Talent Dymamics was created by Roger James Hamilton as an extension of his World Leading Wealth Dynamics System for Entrepreneurs. If you have utilised and leveraged Wealth Dynamics, you may be able to have a guess at what Talent Dynamics is and does. Otherwise, let me explain.

Through the Talent Dynamics system, Organisations can actually measure and track their current level of trust and flow. They are then given clear strategies and tools that empower individuals at every level of the organisation to increase their level of personal effectiveness, increasing results directly.

There are a number of steps that an Organisation can choose to go through with Talent Dynamics depending on what they are looking to achieve themselves.

1. Understanding Primary Purpose


2. Measuring and Building Flow in the Organisation


3. Meaningful, Measurable, Profitable Change

What are the Pilot Participants saying it did for them?

We ran the first Pilot with The Halthean Corporation - A team of extremely specialist Brand Consultants who work with some of the largest international Brands around. The second Pilot last week was with Cumbria University's Facilities Management Leadership Team. A team of 12 who line manage over 300 staff over multi site operations in the North.

When we go back in 3 and 6 months time and see what both organisations say they have achieved, I will let you know. For now, the immediate feedback was fantastic:

• 95% of the participants said they had learnt something completely new that had great applicability in their current role.


• 90% said they now had a clear understanding of the value as an individual they bring to the organisation that they didnt see before


• 90% can see clearly the value in their team members they didnt see before


• 90% can also now see how they can effectively leverage that value for business results in a way they didnt see before.

Some of the anecdotal feedback we recieved was

"I feel totally empowered to be me and that actually, by being me, I bring tremendous value to the team"

"I cant believe we have achieved all of this in just 2 days!"

"Being part of this programme has opened me up to infinite possibilities in my organisation"

"We have a whole new strategy for 2010, one that we wouldnt have even known was possible if we hadnt done this process, one that we all feel inspired by"

"I had a negative and sceptical view at the start of this programme, I thought it would be a waste of 2 days. Its actually been brilliant"

"Its totally explained why I didnt get on with 'Y' and now we have a language we can use to work together so much more effectively and deliver much better results"

If you have some specific questions on Talent Dynamics you would like me to answer, please post them here and I will get to them over the next few days.

We are working with Workshop Productions who are producing a short video from the second pilot and that will be ready by the end of next week to view and share, so you can see us in action and hear the testimonials direct!!

Dont ask me how to inspire your team... Ask them!

I was asked recently by the leader of a recruitment sales team 'how do I motivate and inspire my sales team when the next sale is really challenging and clients say no, more often?' My answer was very simple, if a little short... 'you dont ask me, you ask your team...'


Seriously Demotivated individuals

It reminded me of when I was leading a team back in my corporate days. I had been placed as a project leader of a team of 6 HR Professionals. All of them had been either Senior HR Managers/Recruitment/Training Managers and they were all based in different parts of the country. None of them had 'elected' to be part of this project group and to make matters even harder, they had all been given redundancy notice but had been told they had to complete this project first. To say they were not motivated was the century's understatement. The company they were working for had just told them they were surplus to requirements, yet they had a really important project to complete first. To make matters much worse, I was the only member of the team that hadnt been served notice, in fact I had recieved a promotion. That didnt make me a popular line manager immediately either!

The first meeting we had was one that made me want to go home and hide!... The team spent 4 hours giving me first hand the brunt of their raw emotion and made it very clear that they did not choose to be in this position and did not see why they should do it.

I on the other hand had been given some particularly challenging goals to achieve in the 6 months by the HR Director. I knew I couldnt do it all myself especially as the most important and technical aspect of this project was one of my greatest weaknesses!

Where to begin?

So how was I ever going to motivate a team that had been told they were not viewed as employees the company wanted to keep...?

Well... Thats exactly what I asked each of them. I met up with each of them individually and asked them, what if anything could possible motivate them to complete this project and to complete it with pride and satisfaction.

One Manager said 'I would like that the company changes its mind about making me redundant and wants me back again'

Another said 'I want you to assist me to get a fantastic job for myself out of this role, with a great reference'

Another said 'I want to feel like part of a really high performing team and I'd like to learn some new skills as im considering setting up my own business'

Each of them had a very different reason for wanting to even contemplate completing the project well and a very different way they wanted to be motivated. Having the one to ones was extremely insightful, it allowed me to see what made each member of the team tick and what turned them right off!

Structuring the Team to play to strengths and preferences

I set up a team day and we all completed a psychometric to allow individuals to learn more about themselves, how they naturally perform best and about each other. Traditionally, in that company, individuals would have had set job profiles but knowing now what I knew about how to get each person into flow, I got them to structure their own accountabilities, choosing what they wanted to work on, either because it was a natural strength or because it was an opportunity to learn a new skill.

All of the project tasks were taken by someone in the team on the day as if by magic. In fact, some members of the team were starting to get quite exited about their projects.

Line Manage me the way I like it best...

Each member of the team as well as picking projects had told me how they liked to be line managed. One manager said 'just leave me to it, tell me what you need and ill get it to you but dont be in my face all day' another said, 'please call me every day in the morning and we can discuss my priorities, this builds my confidence'

Each day as I was line managing I had in my mind the ultimate goal of the individual and we would discuss their progress not just operationally but personally so they knew that their personal success was as important to me as the professional ones.

The result?

I couldnt have dreamt it. We smashed all the goals and well within the time and under budget! My review said that all the goals I had been set were far exceeded... This was totally down to the team being inspired to achieve. Without them, I would have got nowhere...

and by the way, the Manager that wanted to be offered a job back - was offered a promotion instead of the redundancy at the end of the 6 months - however, turned it down as the time had given them chance to assess what they really wanted out of life! Each Manager got exaclty what they had desired for themselves out of this 6 months and some of them confided to me it was the best experience they had to date in their careers...

So if you want to know how to inspire your team, here are my top 5 tips!

1. Find out what motivates them to achieve in the first place - what do they want out of this experience ultimately and how can you help them?
2. Complete some kind of psychometric tool, like the Talent Dynamics Profile test to create more awareness of strengths and preferences in teams
3. Allow the team members to divide up the accountabilities with you so they pick the projects they love doing and the ones they can do well
4. Keep track of both professional and personal goals.
5. Line Manage your team in the way they enjoy being line managed. You dont have to treat everyone the same you do however need to be fair. Everyone wants to be managed differently.