In the first part, we discussed Jim Collins's bus metaphor for managing talents and introduced the TIPS profiling method. We explored the steps of identifying and aligning talents within your organization to ensure everyone is in the right seat doing the right things. In the second part, we will discuss how TIPS can help you to develop the skills base of your talents, plan who else you need to bring onto the bus to help you seize the opportunities of the Sixth Wave of technology innovation, hire the right people to fill these vacant seats, and finally get the wrong people off the bus in a graceful and empowering way. 

So, are you ready to transform your dream team for the future? Discover how to equip, plan, and transition your talents with TIPS to master the Sixth Wave of Innovation.

4. Talent development: Equip all talents with critical know-how to do their job best. 

To prepare for the tidal wave of change hitting all industries in the coming years, companies must massively up- and re-skill their workforce. The World Economic Forum highlights in its Future of Jobs Report 2023 that employers estimated that 44% of workers’ skills will be disrupted in the next five years and that six in 10 workers will require training before 2027.

Here, TIPS can also help you to develop your talents in harmony by matching the cognitive styles of your talents. For example, send a Systematizer to a Cybersecurity training, upskill a Technocrat on Blockchain Technology, and enroll a Theorist in a Machine Learning program.

5. Talent planning: Find out what seats on the bus still need to be occupied. 

Companies also need to urgently create new roles related to the Sixth Wave technologies to ensure they can actively ride the opportunities they offer. Examples of new roles listed in the WEF report include AI and Machine Learning Specialists,  Sustainability Specialists, Business Intelligence Analysts, Information Security Analysts, FinTech Engineers, Data Analysts and Scientists, Robotics Engineers, Big Data Specialists, and Digital Transformation Specialists. So, plan what new roles your particular business needs to transition into the new digital, clean, and human tech-driven age, but also check for other talent gaps in existing teams identified while analyzing your TIPS Team Profiling Maps. 

For example, most people on a sales team belong to the People-driven profiles (Partner, Promoter, and All-Rounder). If you want to take the team from good to great, add either a Systematizer or, even better, an Organizer and a Technocrat to the team, who take care of managing the organizational backend (making call reports, entering data into your CRM system, making appointments, etc.) that the People-driven profiles hate to do.

6. Talent acquisition: Bring the right people onto the bus to occupy these vacant seats.

Once you have figured out what seats on the bus are vacant, you need to hire the right people who cognitively fit these seats. When we support companies in their talent acquisition activities, we first help them link each role to one ideal TIPS profile (and up to two “also can” profiles). Then, we offer them to TIPS-profile the 2-3 candidates they short-listed and give feedback on the cognitive job-profile fit, a critical criterion that the hiring managers consider alongside others in selecting the right person to take the vacant seat.

7. Talent transition: Get the wrong people off the bus.

“Whether someone is the ‘right person’ has more to do with character traits and innate capabilities than with specific background, knowledge, or skills,” noted Jim Collins. He also outlines that great companies owe it to their high performers to get the wrong people off the bus: “The only way to deliver to the people who are achieving is to not burden them with the people who are not achieving."

So, the wrong person may be someone with an attitude or a psycho-static mind who’s resisting change and unwilling to learn new skills and do things in new ways crucial to making your business survive the tsunami hitting your industry in the coming years. Or it might be someone you hired before and put in the wrong seat who is unwilling or unable to take a new seat inside your company. In that case, awareness of their respective TIPS profile can also help them find a suitable new position in another organization.

For example, one tech scale-up brought in a new Sales Manager during the pandemic hired in an online interview. Five months later, revenues dropped dramatically as the best of the team’s salespeople had left the venture. A TIPS test revealed that this manager profiled as a Systematizer, a profile incompatible with the dynamic energy of a fast-growing sales team. After helping this manager find a better-fitting role in a more settled external organization, the tech scale-up brought in a Popular Promoter as the new manager of their sales team, and they almost recovered the lost sales by the end of the financial year. 

Conclusion: Make everyone on the bus enjoy your company's Sixth Wave journey with TIPS

“The old adage ‘People are your most important asset’ is wrong. People are not your most important asset. The right people are,” noted Jim Collins. With the help of TIPS, you can ensure you have the right people on the bus in the right seat doing the right things and learning those new skills needed to successfully transition your company into a new digital, sustainable, and human-centered technological age. 

Of course, you can also use another personal assessment tool other than TIPS. After all, it is estimated that moret than 2,000 profiling tools are available in the market. Most of those were created in the 20th century, when the business landscape was relatively static and dominated by Third, Fourth, and Fifth Wave technologies. So, if you are a human resources professional and want to stay in your comfort zone, continue using the same old profiling tools you used in the past to get the same results you’ve always had. As Einstein noted: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” But as you are not insane, why not move into the 21st century and find out how to better talent-manage the people on your bus with TIPS?

• Want to learn more about TIPS and how our profiling method can transform your talent management? Visit our website to learn more about TIPS, watch our informative video, or download our comprehensive TIPS booklet. 
• Want to see the full potential of TIPS in action? Consider having us profile your team members and demonstrate how to collaborate and innovate more effectively in a TIPS Innovator Profiling Workshop. 
• Are you eager to know what’s your own TIPS profile? Click here to find out your talent and innovator type for just USD 89.
• Ready to take your talent management to the next level? Reach out to us and start your journey towards mastering the Sixth Wave of Innovation with TIPS.

© Dr. Detlef Reis 2024. This article is earmarked to be co-published in the Bangkok Post in the coming weeks.