First Best Destiny… I Mean Job
Attracting, retaining, developing and getting the most out of today’s knowledge workers is the number one priority for most employers. This is the central challenge for cognitive designers focused on organizational issues.
The idea is simple. If I can understand how minds (individual, group and even machine) really work then I should be able to design a workplace to maximize a return on/for talent.
So I am always on the look out for new scientific insights into the cognition of workplace and service productivity. One such insight can be found in the article Three Lessons for Creating Flourishing, that summarizes several keynotes from the 2nd Applied Positive Psychology Conference.
Pay special attention to the second lesson that discusses a case study by Aviva, a large insurance company. They use a strength-based approach rather than a competency-based approach to human resource management and have produce some impressive results.
The insight is to hire people “made for the job” (uncompromising match to their core strengthens) rather than hiring someone that can do the job and emphasizing skill and competency development.
Emphasizing strength over competency means:
“enabling people to work to their strengths, be happier as a result and perform at a higher level”
A deep and natural fit between the cognitive needs and talents of an employee with the production or service needs of the organization will supercharge productivity.
The idea of playing to your strengths rather than developing your weaknesses has been around a long time but it is being rediscovered and tuned up by the positive psychology movement. Putting it into practice however, is hard work.
In the US we have evolved a management mindset and HR practices that value utility players, upskilling, rotation and human capital development. It would take too long and cost too much to find a “perfect” (strength-based) fit for all the key jobs we must fill. Besides our business constantly changes and we don’t want to over-fit people to a position or hire folks that must do what they love or quit. All these concerns are true but they result in sub-optimizing the cognitive output of our most important asset – knowledge workers.
