Compete for People

Retention of geoscientists is now a strategic issue in the oil and gas industry according to leading business analysts.  Retention of geoscientists is a long-term, complex problem requiring leadership dedicated to overcoming the costs of attrition (both tangible and hidden) and fostering exceptional individual performance.  Upper management can set goals, issue directives and model best leadership practices; but, the execution that counts most is in the relationship between professional geoscientists and their immediate supervisors.  These leaders manage the local climate and culture, match talent and skills with challenging work assignments, assess performance, and convey the hope and vision of the future.  These are the key factors contributing to the retention of talent over which they have significant influence.

To manage for retention, leaders must first take inventory of their human assets.  What defines them as individuals? What drives them?  What is their creative domain?  How are they positioned? How big is their network? What are their alternative futures?  Broad, stereotypical generalizations about motivation from popular literature or multiple choice questionnaires (e.g. D.I.S.C., et al) are useful but not specific enough.  Each individual is unique.  The only way to gain the information required is to engage people in essential conversations over a period of time and build an individualized career profile for each person.  This process is the pathway to better leadership decisions about developing people.  And it is quite different and more in-depth than routine annual performance appraisals geared to compensation.  Leaders need to weigh the effort to do this against the consequences of conversations not held.

The results are worth the effort.          The discovery of “motivational drivers” is the key to best possible fit between skills and challenge, resulting in higher, more satisfying individual performance.  The creation of alternative futures through scenario planning overcomes uncertainty about the future.  This process of individual engagement resulted in zero unwanted turnover in an applied geoscience technology group for ten years.

The immediate need is to give leaders the tools to manage retention.  This is a problem that will not go away soon if the analysis of workforce demographics is correct.  In addition it is not a problem that can be deferred to someone else. It is an opportunity for geoscience leaders to have significant impact on the future of their organization and gain a creative advantage over those who fail to meet this challenge.  Success is an image and reputation of an organization that everyone wants to join and no one wants to leave.

Retention of talent has become a strategic industry issue.  Business analysts consider access to the talent pool on a par with access to capital among key industry needs.  Shortage of talent may limit the ability to take advantage of significant opportunities.  The solution to the retention issue will be found, however, in highly purposeful dialogue between working professionals and their leaders and mentors; and the process will be High Touch, In-Depth and Long-Term.  All other things being equal, retention is intimately tied to high personal performance.  It can be put off by money, but money is never a long-term solution.  Top talent stays to do meaningful work in the company of stimulating peers in an environment that fosters creativity.  The problem is that most leaders do not have the training to deal with retention and attrition.  The need is to educate and train leaders and mentors to establish and manage a Creative Climate, and to engage professionals in a series of Essential Conversations that are “tipping points” in career development and the gateway to higher levels of performance and a commitment to stay.  These conversations about professionals are best addressed for professionals by professionals.  For many mid-career scientists and engineers, mastering these techniques could help them resurrect the much-needed and highly valued role of mentor within their organization. They could play a key role in recruiting, developing and retaining the technical workforce for years to come.  The cost of attrition is much higher than the cost of the training required

This has been submitted as an abstract for an oral presentation at petrotechical professional meeting 2012.

“The time has come”, the Walrus said, ”To talk of many things: Of shoes and ships and sealing wax,  Of cabbages and kings…”                 …… Lewis Carroll

Any survey of advice about retaining top talent today mentions the word “engagement”.  Managers are told to engage with their people and to get to know them.  This has different meanings to different people and organizations.  This advice can lead to an effort to memorize faces and names so people can be addressed familiarly upon sight.  It can mean the creation of elaborate family history files that executives can review before meetings to be able to recall how somebody’s son or daughter did on his/her SATs.  Knowing people can be reviewing their resumes prior to discussion of project assignments.   Everyone likes to have their ego stroked from time to time.  At the same time, most technical professionals are not easily impressed or overawed by a dignitary’s walk though their facility.  I remember being quite forgiving of an executive when he remembered an idea I presented although he had forgotten my name.

The value of memorizing peoples’ names appears in accounts of everyone from Peter Drucker to Dale Carnegie; and, I am certainly not one to dispute it.  From my own perspective however, the true value of engagement is entering into the kind of essential conversations over a period of time that move people to be self-motivated toward exceptional performance.

One set of executives in an international energy company decided to implement the practice of “Management by Walking Around”.  Executive were advised that if they made periodic appearances to “show the flag” it would do wonders for the morale of the “troops”.  The announcement was made and then……nothing.  After two weeks milk cartons with executives pictures started showing up in the lunch rooms with messages that these people had not been seen and there was fear that they may have been kidnapped by terrorists.  The program was abandoned.

Whatever conversations you have make sure that they are sincere, genuine and authentic because you are laying a foundation for trust.  Without trust there is no useful or honest dialogue.  And once you have exhausted “shoes and ships and sealing wax”, it is time to address core shared values, long-term constructive career goals, growth as a hub of information flow, and alternative personal scenarios for the future.

YOUR PERSONAL CAREER PROFILE

 Everyone who intends to compete in the workplace from now on needs to become independent, well-connected, and able to anticipate the future.  This is difficul to do alone.  The best strategy is to engage in conversation with people around you about yourself.  The aim is to build a personal Career Profile, your own document for self assassment, planning and measuring progress.  Here are the conversations that are strongly recommended:

This provides a comprehensive foundation for career planning and management, including:

• clarity of personal values that is translated into long-term career goals that generate commitment;
• the discovery of personal motivational drivers that are the basis for exceptional performance;
• the networking knowledge and skills to gain access to everything;  and,
• the ability to anticipate the future and overcome uncertainty through scenario planning.

 YOU and …           Your Values:   “What Defines You?”

What are your core, non-negotialbe career values?  What are your long-term Value-Based, Need-Driven Goals?

 Your Motivations: “What Drives You?”

What gives you a great sense of satisfaction at work

What past accomplishments gave you a great sense of achievement?  Why?                                                                                                        

 Your Connections: “Who Knows You?”

Can you gain access to everything you need through your network?  Are you positioned as a hub of information flow in your field?

Your Creative Domain: “What Do You Do?”

What is your special niche?  What do you do better than anyone else?     

Your “Position” in Your Field:

How are you perceived by your peers and the external marketplace?

 Your Transitions: “How Do You Adapt, Improvise and Overcome?”

 Are you progressing from weakness to power, from  dependence to independence?

Your Futures:  “What is Your Plan B?”

What are your alternative scenarios to anticipate the future and overcome uncertainty?

Your Performance: “How Are You Doing?

What are your measurable milestones of progress?

Nothing moves faster through the business network than the image and reputation of individuals and organizations.  It is all about perceptions and positioning.  The winners in the competition for top technical professionals will be companies that are positioned in the minds of those in the talent pool as the place to build a career; the employer everyone wants to join and no one wants to leave.

Exceptionally talented people are intolerant of incompetence and mediocrity. They can be highly competitive and critical of others, but they know, recognize and respect real talent.  They seek out their peers.  They will multiply in your organization if you involve them in the selection process.  This is the case where a few good men and women can raise the bar of performance for the whole workforce including their leaders.  They are also intolerant of poor leadership.  Given visionary leadership and the right environment they can take an organization places it cannot now imagine.

The competition, as always in the marketplace, is to get there first.  No one has a permanent advantage.  The time to zig is when everyone else is zagging.  While some companies are waiting for third party recruiters to find their talent, the winners are building networks, finding out where the talent is and how to reach them.  The winners are beyond asking what is in the talent pool and are enquiring about who is in the talent pool.  They are asking about deeper level aspirations, shared goals and vision.  They look to match talent and challenge in the best possible job fit that satisfies everyone. They do not demand long-term commitment and loyalty, they earn it.  In the end word gets out and the people they want and need come looking for them

A colleague of mine worked in the Houston office of an energy company as a professional dealing with leases for offshore oil and gas exploration.  The company was going through a very turbulent time fending off hostile takeover attempts by rival organizations.  Business as usual was anything but usual and the distraction let a number of things fall through the cracks.  Perhaps most distracting of all was the constant threat of layoffs during and certainly after a takeover if it happened.  Everyone was desperately trying to duck for cover, make no waves and preserve their jobs.  Every day people checked the rumors and then twisted themselves into pretzels to be what they thought the company wanted them to be.  My colleague tells the story of being so hamstrung by his superior’s indecision that he started signing off on things without all the proper approvals.  Shortly thereafter he was called into the general manager’s office certain that he was being fired.  Instead the manager asked him why he was the only one with any initiative and instructed him to hold a seminar on the subject.  A few months later he quit and accepted a new job with a small, highly entrepreneurial start-up.

Life is too short to be a pretzel.  Forward thinking leaders know this.  The role of leadership is to embrace the drive for self-determination in the workforce and search for better ways to help people discover the best possible job fit and the clearest and most challenging pathways into the future.

Anyone who has gone through a job transition knows that the most powerful job search tool is their personal network of contacts.  The same is true for anyone seeking to be independent and secure in their career.  The ability to gain access to all the resources one needs for success is a significant competitive edge in the workforce of any organization.  Leaders take note. 

People who have been through a job transition and job search invariably rejoin the workforce with a greater appreciation for the power of networking and the use of social networking media than they had in previous employment. 

If learning faster than the competition is a significant competitive edge for you, then making sure that everyone in the workforce has mastered the art of networking is a good strategy for your organization.  It increases the flow of quality information and ideas essential for creative work.  It also enhances your image and reputation as a company to join. 

Leaders can have a strong shaping influence on the networks of their people.  They can help them cross generational, gender and discipline boundaries.  They can connect them with significant hubs of information flow, and they can set goals with regard to the size and content of individual’s networks.  They can focus the flood of social network chatter in productive directions

It might also influence your recruiting process for experienced people.  Questions you will want to ask in future interviews might include: “How big and how efficient is your network?  How fast can you get answers to questions you cannot answer now?  Are you connected to the most important ‘Centers of Influence’ in your field?”

Studies of information flow in organizations show that there are always a few people who maintain outside contacts.  The same people are a major source of new ideas.  Leaders must know who they are and how to use them effectively.  But more importantly leaders need to elevate the skills of networking throughout their entire workforce. 

Helping and encouraging people to expand and deepen their relationships and continuously enlarge their personal networks is a win-win proposition for both the organization and the individual.  It turns your workforce into an information-gathering machine; and, it increases their individual sense of independence.  Their network of contacts is their most important safety net as they seek to remain independent, productive and marketable into the future.

 Next:

There are only two categories of work today: routine work and creative work; and, all great wealth is derived from creative work.  That is the work of words, ideas, concepts, numbers, symbols and imagination; it is the arena of brainpower.  The people who do this work, the so-called creative class, are the drivers of the economy, scientists and engineers, writers and artists and more.  There was a past time when these people formed the loyal and dependent creative core of every industry.  Loyalty was rewarded by lifetime employment and secure retirement.  That time is long gone.

Today these people seek professional and financial independence.  The employers who support this drive for personal independence will be rewarded with a highly productive workforce.  There simply is no future for corporate dependence and blind loyalty, except perhaps in government service. 

Staffing people tell us that many of their hiring clients want some guarantee that job applicants will commit to the employers long-term.  It seems that this cuts both ways.  Interviewees want to know if the commitment will be mutual. 

Right now, with the unemployment rate over 9.0%, it is a buyers market; but, history and demographics tell us that this will not always be the case.  Just as an army trains intensely in peacetime for the inevitable armed conflict, employers need to be preparing now for the intense competition for talent that is coming.

At the heart of this preparation is the cultural climate for creativity.  Over and over in the past companies have rediscovered what this climate looks like, feels like, smells like, sounds like and tastes like.  It is an environment that fosters, even demands, “freedom of expression and movement, a lack of destructive dissent, a willingness to break with custom, a spirit of fun, coupled with absolute dedication to work, and purpose on a grand scale”. 

This is the core of the vision and the basis for an image and reputation that will attract talent.  Combine this with adequate resources and an authentic sense of urgency and the people you want and need will come…big time.

Leadersw need to do the research and experimentation to discover if they are prepared to compete for the people they will need when they need them.

Next:  Access: The Ultimate Safety Net

When my granddaughter was seventeen she wasn’t convinced that she would ever finish high school.  It was not a matter of ability; it was a matter of uncertainty.  She was always driven to learn and wanted to be a doctor; but, at that time she could not see a way to overcome all the obstacles in her path, especially after the death of her father.  There was no money and little guidance.  Last month, May, 2011, she graduated from college and is preparing to go to medical school.

What happened?  A lot of things spurred her on including her own grit and determination.  But I think we can identify a key “tipping point”.  Tipping points are small events that trigger major consequences.  When she was a struggling teen and thinking about dropping out of high school, we created three alternative scenarios, story-like narratives, for her future.  One was called “Dreams Dashed” in which she did not finish high school, went to work as a receptionist in a tanning salon, and, like so many of her friends, became a single mom before the age of twenty. 

The second scenario was called “Dreams Deferred” in which she finished high school and went to work for a law firm while continuing her studies at the local community college.  The third was called “Dreams Realized” in which she got scholarships that allowed her to go directly to the university after high school. 

Doing the background for these scenarios insured that she finished high school.  She got a job as a teller in a credit union while she attended the two-year community college.  She learned fast, was promoted at work and had a bright future there.  Yet she quit her job at the end of community college to transfer as a junior, pre-med student to a state university.  The scenarios were the tipping point.  They gave her a clear look at her choices and allowed her to make decisions in advance of unfolding events. They helped her overcome uncertainty; and they gave her hope.  Everyone today needs alternative futures, a Plan B and a Plan C.  As Yogi Berra once said, “When you come to the fork in the road, take it”.

The process of building alternative scenarios, stories about likely futures, has been called the process of “imbedding memories of the future”.  It helps people like my granddaughter make decisions in their imagination long before they need to make them under the pressures of real life.    Leaders who seek to gain longer-term commitment from their people can implement th.is tool to help people gain clarity about career goals in the midst of uncertainty.  It lets people explore all the paths long before they reach “the fork in the road”.

All good leaders want their people to succeed in their jobs and their careers.  It benefits the leader, the individuals and the organization.  It not only fuels the bottom line but enhances the image and reputation of the company for future growth and the ability to attract and keep top talent.

Over the last decade of change and turmoil a large number of technically talented people have been lost to the economy because they could not adapt to change, and it has nothing to do with obsolescence of their science, technology, or skills.  They failed because they did not add critical career building skills perhaps unique to these turbulent times.

 People who succeeded almost always acquired the skills to be independent, connected and able to anticipate the future, that is, to gain insight, access and foresight. Unlike technical skills these skills never become obsolete

To attract and keep top talent leaders need to help their people acquire these skills for success. People who are independent and self assured are clear about their values and viewpoints.  They understand what success is for them.  They know what drives them from within and they are capable of generating a high level of commitment to long-term constructive goals.

People who are well-connected become hubs of information flow in their fields.  They never have to say “I don’t know” because they can always say “I can find out”.  People who can anticipate the future are not hampered by needless, often debilitating, uncertainty.  They always have a Plan B and a Plan C.

The changing world of work demands more, especially as people get older and are no longer the new kids on the block.  Unless they develop skills and abilities beyond their narrow specialty, they become perceived as inflexible deadwood, no longer worth the burden of overhead.

 The point is that leaders can make a critical difference now and lay significant foundation for the future.  They can supply the critical tipping points thereby adding value to the company and sustaining a dynamic, experienced and productive workforce.  They can be the ones who did not create the next generation of “deadwood”.

 Next:  Foresight:  Plan B from Inner Space