reviews
By Alyson Nyiri, CHRL
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AGILE TALENT:
HOW TO SOURCE &
MANAGE OUTSIDE
EXPERTS
Jon Younger and Norm Smallwood
Harvard Business Review Press, 2016
When we think about attracting
experts and top talent, we
determine what our organization
needs and prepare a
scope of work. But do we also
ensure they have the right
conditions in place to do their
jobs well? Over-managing or
failing to provide support and
relationships with internal
staff can diminish the effectiveness
of outside experts.
Large companies gain advantage
from agile talent by
filling critical gaps in strategic
capabilities. Agile Talent offers
a detailed analysis of how
best to utilize external talent,
providing survey data and
tools and templates for applying
these ideas.
Point of interest
Understanding what external
talent is looking for will
help you engage and collaborate
with external experts.
As organizations make greater
use of agile talent, the new
“chief external talent officer”
will emerge.
ORIGINALS: HOW
NON-CONFORMISTS
MOVE THE WORLD
Adam Grant
Viking Press, 2016
Originality is not a fixed
trait, writes Grant. It is a
free choice. Using studies
and stories from business,
politics, sports and entertainment,
Grant examines
the ingredients needed for
creative, moral and organizational
change. He offers
a blueprint to help generate
and stimulate new ideas
and build cultures that
welcome dissent.
Originality, as defined by
Grant, starts with creativity,
which is generating a concept
that is both novel and useful.
“Originals” are people who
take the initiative to make
their visions a reality.
Point of interest
Grant found that voicing new
revenue-generating ideas led
to higher performance evaluations
for men, but not for
women. When women offer
suggestions for improvements,
managers judge them as less
loyal than men and are less
likely to implement their proposals.
To maximize the value
of all originals, organizations
must address their biases.
Point of interest
Recognition programs typically
require support from all
levels of management in order
to be successful. For transformation
to take root, it must be
practiced by a critical mass of
influencers, both formally and
informally. When it comes to
recognition, everyone can be an
influencer wherever they are in
the organization.
Point of interest
Studies show that the positive
emotion of joy helps broaden
our thought-action repertoires.
When our brain is in a positive
state, we can identify more
ways to respond to circumstances
compared to the effects
of negative emotions. n
FOREVER RECOGNIZE
OTHERS’ GREATNESS
Sarah McVanel and
Brenda Zalter-Minden
BPS Books, 2015
When Canadian Metrics@Work
analyzed its database of a quartermillion
staff engagement surveys
from hundreds of companies, it
found that recognition was the
lowest of the 25 commonly ranked
drivers of engagement.
Using a strengths-based
approach, Forever Recognize
Others’ Greatness (FROG) encourages
organizations to pay
attention to what is working,
make use of what is possible
by leveraging existing strengths
and imagine best possible
scenarios. Greatness, in the
FROG model, is demonstrated
through the actions and behaviours
of individuals or teams
and is acknowledged by genuine
and specific recognition.
THE OPTIMISTIC
WORKPLACE
Shawn Murphy
Amacom, 2016
Murphy opens with Studs
Terkel’s famous line: “This
book, being about work, is,
by its very nature, about violence.”
What follows is
Murphy’s alternative to work
that squanders people’s hopes,
ideas, humanity and access to
meaningful work.
Workplace optimism is a
characteristic of climate, shaping
spirit and output. Written
for those who purposefully
craft a work environment
that allows the human side
of the business to flourish,
The Optimistic Workplace
provides a model of the expectations
necessary to foster
optimism in the work environment.
Murphy’s book presents
a step-by-step process for
charting a path for creating
optimism where you work.
HRPATODAY.CA ❚ MAY/JUNE 2016 ❚ 63