The Cost of Complacency: Fuelling the Foundation of Future Failures
I have been fascinated by what we accept as managers and leaders both in Talent Acquisition and obviously specifically in Talent Intelligence. In the realm of talent intelligence, the concept of today's accepted errors and inaccuracies serving as the baseline for failure is particularly relevant. Talent intelligence teams can play a crucial role in leveraging data to inform decision-making processes, shape organizational strategies, and drive human capital management. However, accepting flawed processes, assumptions or inaccuracies in our talent intelligence offerings or teams can have significant implications, both for the team and the organization as a whole. This article explores the criticality of maintaining accuracy and rigor within talent intelligence, emphasizing the need for continuous improvement to avoid a baseline of failure.
By allowing inaccuracy to creep in… By accepting poor data hygiene... By accepting missed or pushed deadlines… By accepting individuals not following the process…. we are in a situation of compounded negative decline. This is in essence the inverse of the article I wrote earlier this year on The power of marginal gains in building your Talent Intelligence capabilities. Each element in of itself is a small error, a small mistake, a small inaccuracy. But over time and in a cumulative and compounded manner these will mean you have a Talent Intelligence team built on foundations of sand and impossible to scale and develop in a sustainable way. If we look at the Sir Clive Woodward quote in that article “Winning the Rugby world cup was not about doing one thing 100% better, but about doing 100 things 1% better” I would argue the opposite is also true. If you allow 100 things to be 1% worse than your team will cumulatively be 100% worse than you should be. Note this isn’t 100% worse than the marginal gains positive impact, but 100% worse than the baseline of acceptable output.
But let’s dive in to what this actually means.
Building a Foundation of Accuracy:
The success of a talent intelligence team hinges on the accuracy and reliability of the data they analyse and the standard operating procedure they follow. From a project perspective errors and inaccuracies in data collection, cleaning, and analysis can lead to misguided insights and flawed conclusions. Therefore, it is vital to establish robust data governance protocols, ensuring data integrity throughout the entire analytics process. Regular data audits, quality checks, and validation mechanisms should be in place to identify and rectify errors before they become accepted as the baseline. Equally though from a process perspective having a clean and clear standard operating procedure for the team is vital. One that allows deep dives into the process efficiency and effectiveness. Allows for spot audits of output and ensures mechanisms are driving value. This will allow you to not only have a clear baseline for your product (talent intelligence) but also a clear baseline of what is accepted for your team and team operations (Talent Intelligence).
The importance of reliability of the data “talent intelligence” is naturally assumed and discussed but I would argue that the underlying baseline of what we tolerate from our “Talent Intelligence” teams standards in our standard operating procedures is less well understood but arguably more important.
As with any good commercially focussed team, talent intelligence team must align its efforts with the strategic goals and objectives of the organization. This alignment ensures that intelligence initiatives address relevant business challenges and provide insights that drive meaningful outcomes. By maintaining close collaboration with stakeholders across different departments, the team can understand the evolving needs of the organization and adjust their analytics approach accordingly. Regular feedback loops and evaluation of the impact of analytics initiatives help identify areas for improvement and maintain relevance in a dynamic organizational context. To drive this though you need both a clean baseline of what a high performing Talent Intelligence team looks like, what are your KPIs, what are your success metrics etc but also most importantly clean data on these points. Data inaccuracy in what you measure yourself on will become the guiding standard by how others then view your output as a team. If you cannot cleanly articulate how many projects you’ve completed, what goals you are aligned to, how long projects take, what the current workload is etc because individuals haven’t been logging work accurately then how can leaders trust you to guide them through hugely strategic decision making processes.
“You get what you demand, and you encourage what you tolerate” Tom Landy
To avoid falling into the trap of accepting errors and inaccuracies, a talent intelligence team must foster a culture of continuous improvement. This involves encouraging team members to challenge assumptions, critically analyze findings, and engage in ongoing professional development capacity.. Regular feedback loops and knowledge-sharing sessions help identify and address areas of improvement, elevating the team's overall effectiveness. Be open and clear that imperfection and inaccuracy happens but looking for route causes for that is vital. Be clear about why you need X,Y,Z fields filled out in your project tracking mechanisms. Do not fall into the trap of thinking the process is perfect though. Be ruthless about any element that isn’t adding value. If you ask yourself and your team to fill in 50 fields of information to track your projects, the stakeholders, the cost centres, the job families the work is against, the location etc but only 50% of these fields get filled in, then be ruthless on your audit to see what, and why and remove the waste from the process. An empty field is infinitely less valuable that a field that doesn’t exist.
Only track what is vital. If you need to track something, then do so, but do so with ruthless attention to detail and maniacal focus to ensure data accuracy is high and an effective baseline is met.
As with most things in life consistent quality will win out over quantity. Be clear about your expectations for yourself and the team. Do not be accepting or tolerate poor behaviours and data inaccuracy. Be clear about what your standard operating procedure is. What timelines are acceptable. What sources are credible. What data hygiene is needed. What communication schedule is required etc and do not allow your standards to drop. Absolutely we need flexibility in offering and consulting output but do not let the standards drop. Do not do that scrappy piece of work off the side of the desk that isn’t up to the standard you want to be known for. Do not be accepting of projects that go for days or weeks without updating your system of record so you do not know what you have worked on, for who, how long it took, or what was the impact. Be consistent in your standards, and your tolerance of inaccuracy.
In the world of talent intelligence, today's accepted errors and inaccuracies can become the foundation of failure if left unaddressed. Building a successful talent intelligence team requires a commitment to accuracy, continuous improvement, and consistency. By establishing robust data governance practices, fostering a culture of critical thinking and learning, delivering accurate and actionable insights, and developing the necessary capabilities, a talent intelligence team can avoid the pitfalls of accepting errors. Ultimately, this ensures that analytics efforts contribute effectively to evidence-based decision-making and the long-term success of the organization.
By mastering the art of cultivating consistency in your standards, you can surpass talent, luck, skill, and even quality over time, simply through your unwavering commitment to consistency.