Talent is natural. The challenge is, how do we keep it so?

The pandemic has been a compelling force for the corporate world to evolve their business models. It did not only cause unexpected changes but also opened many desired avenues for the workforce. As the affinity for physical presence shrunk, the willingness to work for anyone, from anywhere, anytime got a space much larger than it had ever before. This implies that a large workforce will work remotely from a variety of local cultures for a host corporate culture!

For decades, people practitioners have advocated fiercely for the development of a corporate or company culture that binds everyone together while working inside a four-wall structure. The unsaid expectation for all professionals has been to follow a shared company culture. Learning and following the culture was very natural as people invested at least 9 hours a day at work. In circumstances when it wasn’t natural for a few, it was untenable for them to be part of it. To put it straight, it didn’t matter where you came from but where you worked today and how!

Talent, simply put, is the natural ability or aptitude to do something of value. Natural ability is a derivative of the cultural context under which one was brought up. The whole journey adds up to an experience that makes someone a talent, a natural talent! The very natural abilities one is hired for are expected to be synthesized further to learn new norms. The time spent at work on a regular basis allowed for this natural change in talent. In the pursuit of a common culture, practitioners spent more time assisting talent to conform to common norms, not realizing that this mutated natural talent. Natural talent is a key source of innovation and saving it is imperative for any organization’s future.

Given the future of work where remote and hybrid work will take the front seat, a local culture will be a sustained variable in the talent space. Therefore, going forward, people practitioners need to invest more time in understanding and identifying talent in the context of a local culture. An honest effort needs to be invested in understanding different local cultures and how they nurture talent, rather than encouraging the talent to comply with a host corporate culture. A company's culture is undoubtedly important in developing a shared identity, but the question is whether it should be a dominant variable influencing talent. Does it not impact the very natural ability of a talented person?

There wouldn’t be many organ failures in organizations if the talent was viewed in the context of a local culture. Talent is a natural act, and I have been wondering how to keep it so. How about you?

These are my personal views and reflections as a people practitioner.