CityVP Manjit

5 years ago · 3 min. reading time · ~10 ·

Blogging
>
CityVP blog
>
KNOWMADS

KNOWMADS

XE) d lal

Soraya Del Portillo Pérez
Via Mamen Delgado

[TEIt used to be that writers like Tom Peters introduced ideas like "War for Talent" as if patriarchal mindsets did not dominate workplace cultures as it is.  When I read a piece shared by Mamen 🐝 Delgado on LinkedIn I was very appreciative of hearing the words of kindred spirits.  When Soraya starts her thoughts by saying that it is not enough just to retain talent, that we should charm talent.  "Love" is still a rare word used to describe how we look at talent, but it is a much more relevant term than "War" is in a 21st Century workplace.   Her article can be read by clicking the picture above or here.

I have many points of affinity with Soraya especially her opening points of adapting to talent and capability.  This is reminiscent of Steve Jobs statement that it does not make sense to hire the most talented people and then tell them what to do. It is not that masculine traits outweigh feminine traits but that to represent a 21st Century mind both men and women need to embrace or at least equalize with the feminine.  Jobs scored great success with his equalization where the feminine that is art shaped his and Jony Ives design thinking.

Soraya draws home the point that modern environments that are volatile and uncertain in their makeup requires a different quality of talent, one that is energetic as much as it is talented and not simply for the sake of execution, but to adapt quickly to the transforming circumstances of the modern workplace. For sure there are archaic management practices that will stick around in leadership psyche that is no longer fit for purpose.  Soraya see's the same thing as I do which is the birth of learning cultures where we benefit from mistakes rather than create punitive cultures - and that goes beyond what Peter Senge saw as learning organizations - because here learning is atomized to individual talent and not a broad brushstroke of an entire organization.

Where Soraya charmed me was in this portion of her article where she says :

"En esta línea, desde las diferentes áreas de RRHH debemos centrar nuestros esfuerzos en seleccionar, atraer, desarrollar, cautivar y enamorar a los denominados “Knowmads“, que son simplemente personas con una gran capacidad de autoaprendizaje, alta proactividad, hiper-digitales, sin miedo al fracaso, creativos y lo más importante de todo, sin una edad determinada."

Soraya Del Portillo Perez

It is here she introduced me to the idea of KNOWMADS and her description reminds me of another term that has been used called "Neo-Generalists".   The difference is that "Knowmads" can also be specialists because here she is talking about a learning based or focused individual and I definitely view myself as a quintessential "knowmad".  I also like the term "knowmad" because it evokes the word "nomad" and that sense of individual being speaks to the alternative to workplaces where groupthink is the major and dominant mindset.   This led me to John Moravec :

And ultimately when we see ourselves as transforming learners with open minds and utilizing learning spaces to express our capability, our vision, our purpose or the depth and breadth of our learning, then that transforms more than the workplace, it transforms the nature of the village we exist in, and ultimately the quality of homes we build as open minded and life embracing learners - and while I do not see HR as the holders of that future, I do see the value of what it means to be a Knowmad and I am proud thus to declare myself a knowmad both here in my online learning spaces and in my offline spaces that is represented by my membership of several Toastmasters clubs.  Humanity is a physical, psychological and organizational truth but it is not the dominant reality still of our group-think and overly marketed workplace - humanity is not a platitude, it is an authenticity without trying to be authentic.  We are human beings who create the human home and not actors who simply work for a living.

My thanks goes out to Mamen Delgado for introducing me to Soraya through her LinkedIn post yesterday.

"
Comments

CityVP Manjit

5 years ago #3

#5
Thanks Bill. It is very much an infliction of short-termitis that see's business owners flipping out but far worse losing their businesses to mundane matters like cashflow. It is one thing keeping up with things, it is another to lose sight of things like cashflow because an owner is so distracted. The failure to look across horizontally is the Dracula moment of the vertical view. Many companies put a stake through the hearts of talent they have hired due to the irrational maelstrom that is the actual nature of business today. The way talent is treated in the workplace today is purely a symptom of a root cause that is entirely preventable.

CityVP Manjit

5 years ago #2

#2
I see the cycle that starts with the generation of creative ideas differently in that as ideas scale they take on a life of their own and are then shaped by that scaling. With "Wisdom of the Crowds" the focus is a confirmation bias in that what we are noting with that term is that many minds together can produce the right answer that a single mind alone would take a longer time to produce. Yet it totally ignores the capability and conceptual ability of the crowd and there comes a point where the creative idea is destroyed by whatever point it touches the ceiling of human capability (where that capability has found its highest level). This draws into your discussion of disruptive bias because the original creator did not level set the idea to the masses who will utilize that idea. In other cases where the original creators idea was corrupted by a selfish or self-sieving elite, that same mass can be mobilized into group-think at the talent level or war at the political level and instead of resisting the war, special interest leaders dehumanize the cost of losing human life for their own ends or goals. This is what also makes using expressions such as "War for Talent" odious if we know the abuses of history and ideas that did not level set with the masses. https://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/war-for-talent

CityVP Manjit

5 years ago #1

#2
I see the cycle that starts with the generation of creative ideas differently in that as ideas scale they take on a life of their own and are then shaped by that scaling. With "Wisdom of the Crowds" the focus is a confirmation bias in that what we are noting with that term is that many minds together can produce the right answer that a single mind alone would take a longer time to produce. Yet it totally ignores the capability and conceptual ability of the crowd and there comes a point where the creative idea is destroyed by whatever point it touches the ceiling of human capability (where that capability has found its highest level). This draws into your discussion of disruptive bias because the original creator did not level set the idea to the masses who will utilize that idea. In other cases where the original creators idea was corrupted by a selfish or self-sieving elite, that same mass can be mobilized into group-think at the talent level or war at the political level and instead of resisting the war, special interest leaders dehumanize the cost of losing human life for their own ends or goals. This is what also makes using expressions such as "War for Talent" odious if know the abuses of history and ideas that did not level set with the masses. https://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/war-for-talent

Articles from CityVP Manjit

View blog
4 years ago · 3 min. reading time

When one looks at Liverpool and their high press game with similar assets on the field in the year S ...

3 years ago · 3 min. reading time

When Manchester City were second place in the 2018/19 season with 14 games left, they had just lost ...

3 years ago · 3 min. reading time

Finally football has returned after the lock-down and it is a much welcomed return of live sport. · ...

You may be interested in these jobs

  • Prometric

    OSCE Examiner

    Found in: Talent CA C2 - 1 week ago


    Prometric Toronto, Canada

    OVERVIEW · Prometric administers the Certification Examinations for registration as a Massage Therapist in Ontario. The examinations involve a Multiple-Choice Question (MCQ) Examination and an Objectively Structured Clinical Evaluation (OSCE). The OSCE is administered in Downtown ...

  • Cidrerie Milton

    Livreur(se) (poste basé à Granby)

    Found in: Talent CA 2 C2 - 6 days ago


    Cidrerie Milton Saint-Césaire, Canada

    Fonctions : · Vous êtes une personne autonome qui aime faire de la route? Joignez-vous à notre équipe · Vos principales responsabilités : · Être responsable de l'exécution et du suivi des livraisons; · Préparer les commandes à livrer; · Charger le camion en respectant la charge ...

  • BLANKSLATE Partners

    Senior Structural Engineer

    Found in: Talent CA C2 - 4 days ago


    BLANKSLATE Partners Prince George, Canada Full time

    About Us · The Scouten Story: · Scouten Engineering is a dynamic consulting civil and structural engineering firm based in Prince George, British Columbia. · We have been successfully meeting the structural and civil engineering consulting needs of our clients since 1995. Our peo ...