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Key Takeaways
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- Establish effective resource management, which starts with accurately defining roles, not just individuals.
- Focus on interchangeability to create flexible resource pools.
- Prioritize consistent skills tracking to identify and address skill gaps.
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Resource management is often a chaotic mess, with leaders struggling to understand who they have, what they can do, and how to allocate them effectively. This chaos is often fueled by a fundamental misunderstanding of how to categorize and manage talent. It's time for a "talent management" myth buster.
The "individual" trap
The biggest mistake is managing resources as individuals, rather than as roles. It's like organizing your tool shed by serial number instead of by the function of the tool. As you get more and more "tools," you run into management problems. You can't see where bottlenecks are and what skills are lacking. You end up with a fragmented, inefficient mess.
Roles: The key to interchangeability
Think of roles as buckets, and skills as the water droplets inside those buckets. The key is not to get lost on each skill, but to be able to organize around what's important.
A role is defined by interchangeability. Are you willing to switch one person for another to perform a task? If so, they fill the same role. If not, they should be considered separate roles.
Example of a role: Product manager. Jane, John, or Alfred can do it.
Example of not a role: The "do-everything" person.
Once you have roles to build around, managing the water droplets—skills, resources, and so on—becomes much easier.
Skills: Matching, not measuring
Skills are important, but they shouldn't be used to create an overly granular, unmanageable role structure. Skills are best used for matching people to specific tasks or projects, not for measuring aggregate demand. Tracking skills is helpful to see if, in general, there are sufficient resources for certain things.
Skills are for matching and finding, not measuring demand.
Visibility: The foundation of effective resource management
The first step towards better resource management is visibility. Do you know who you have? Do you know what roles they perform? Do you know what skills they possess? For many organizations, the answer is no. And if the answer is yes, the inventory isn’t kept up to date.
By implementing a system that encourages consistent skills tracking, you can gain valuable insights into your organization's talent pool. How many people know how to work on AI initiatives? If the answer is not enough, what are you going to do about it?
Reclaim control of your resources
Effective resource management isn't about tracking individuals. It's about creating a system that allows you to:
- Define roles: Focus on interchangeability, not specific skills.
- Track skills: Identify and address skill gaps across the organization.
- Prioritize visibility: Ensure your skills inventory is accurate and up to date.
By mastering these fundamentals, you can unlock the full potential of your workforce and drive greater success.
