You win or lose depending on the talent in your organisation. Attract and retain talented people, in a way that leads them to perform, and you win. The alternative is mediocrity and all that comes with it.
This article looks at defining mission critical talent, and then describes the process to transfer that talent in such a way as to create performance breakthroughs in an organization.
This is the full text of an article written for a conference on Career Planning, organizaed by the Asia Business Forum in Hong Kong on April 18, 2005.
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2005
“‘Mental DNA’” and Competitive Advantage” A presentation prepared for the “2005 Career Development and Succession Planning Conference”
by Chris Lonsdale, CEO Chris Lonsdale & Associates Ltd.
C H R I S L O N S D A L E & A S S O C I AT E S LT D . Copyright 2005, Chris Lonsdale
“‘Mental DNA’” and Competitive Advantage” I f you’re leading a business in today’s world, or even just a department, you know that you win or lose depending on the talent in your Mission Critical Roles and Competitive Advantage organization. The more talented people you In my experience, when dealing with the “war can attract and retain, and the better they for talent” it’s important to distinguish between perform, the more effectively you are able to more “average” roles, and roles that are compete. “mission critical”. Within any company, certain functions are at the centre of the business Of course, your competition think about it this offering. These are the roles where value is way too, and they are working overtime to created for the customer. They may be make sure that they are the ones to attract management or leadership positions, although the most talented people, and then get them this is by no means always the case. The roles focused on bringing about your defeat in the that I’m talking about tend to have the following marketplace. The more competition there is characteristics: for talent, the harder it is for you. Your risk of losing good people increases, as do the costs • They have a high skill component, often of both finding and retaining good people. It viewed as more “art” than “science” seems like an endless game that no-one can • The skills (historically) have taken a long win. time to train, and are often passed along within a department from “master” to In Asia, especially China, the situation is even “student” more acute. Wherever you turn companies • Often there is only a small “clique” of people are struggling with the prospects of having to who have the necessary skill compete with a very thin bench, or sometimes no bench at all. Clearly, such a situation is not These three factors, operating in unison, create sustainable. a difficult situation for the people responsible for managing human resources in a company. This paper explores a new approach to talent The long lead-time for training means that it management that can go some way to helping can be very difficult to ramp up as the business innovative companies stay ahead of the pack. grows. The requisite skill levels often mean It’s called “Mental DNA” or DNAm© for short. that standard training isn’t available, or it is
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“‘Mental DNA’” and Competitive Advantage” quite difficult to find. And, the fact that the “Rainmakers”. These people are the stars people with the skill are relatively rare means who make the bulk of the revenue. that you either can’t find people when you want them, OR you end up in a bidding war Portfolio managers and Rainmakers are, in for the best people. many ways, quite “high flying” roles, and it might be easy to conclude that this is what Mission Critical Defined: As I mentioned above, defines “mission critical”. However, consider “mission critical” does not necessarily mean for a moment an industrial company that “senior”. It does mean that there is a direct makes a bulk of its revenue from selling paint. connection with what the business does, and An absolutely critical element in the process where value is created. For instance, within of selling paint is the ability to match the colour a finance company or investment company of the paint with the customer’s requirements. there are people with the title “portfolio Part of this process is done using advanced manager”. The role of these people is to find measuring equipment. And, you can’t get the clients with whom they can do business (which colour of a paint right just using technical means, people they can invest in or people analysis. You need people who are trained in they can loan money to). If a “portfolio colour matching to make the final judgement. manager” does his/her job well, then the So-called “colour matchers” aren’t that senior finance company will make wise, profitable in an organization, but they are absolutely investments and loans. critical to the mission. If they get it wrong, millions of dollars of product can go to waste. If, on the other hand, a “portfolio manager” Worse. Customers will walk. does not have the necessary basket of skills, the company’s investments and loans will tend Another example would be call-centre to be risky and unprofitable. Clearly, within a “experts”, who are on the phone to customers finance related company, this is a key element every day. If your business depends on a call- of the company’s business, which makes the centre in any way, the customer reps in the role mission critical. call-centre are in mission critical roles. If they do a great job, your business will build along Within an investment bank there are people with your reputation. If they do a less than responsible for client management and stellar job, however, you will experience the business development. This is a mission critical (unpleasant) results on the bottom line. role because revenue generation depends, to a large extent, on the ability of people in the When you think about business in this way, role to “sniff out” new deals, and build resilient, it becomes quite obvious that your competitive profitable client relationships. Many people in advantage is directly tied to the way in which these roles have solid but not particularly you manage, develop, and retain people in spectacular performance. And, within every mission critical roles. investment bank, there is a small cadre of client facing people who are known as
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“‘Mental DNA’” and Competitive Advantage” Value Creation Bottlenecks in Asia Because many industries are only just beginning to move into Asia in real force, The challenge of effectively managing mission there has not been enough time to build up critical roles is even greater in Asia than in a solid “bench” of critical skills in the Asian many places in the Western Hemisphere. (and Chinese) market place. This is especially true in China, which is quickly becoming the world’s factory. Companies The results of this are immediately obvious, from around the world are migrating to China, and quite painful. A case in point is an just as mainland Chinese companies are industrial company that has identified product stepping up to become much more “modern” wastage of over US$1 million per year. Most and professional in their approach. This of this wastage can be linked back to lack demographic shift is creating a massive value of skilled staff in a particular mission critical creation bottleneck. Companies simply cannot role. In addition, this skill gap means that the find enough people with the requisite skills company’s growth over the next 12-18 to handle most of the roles in a company, months is constrained by over US$100 million. never mind mission critical roles. In other words, there is a market opportunity of over US$100 million that the company This value creation bottleneck is caused by cannot take advantage of, simply because a number of key factors. Within Greater China, the skills are not available. for instance, the growth in demand for skilled people is simply much greater than the rate Clearly, this is a major challenge for everybody. at which skilled people are being developed. The question then is, other than waiting 20 This is, to some extent, compounded by the years for the educational establishment to education system that is common in China, catch up, is there any way to relieve the Hong Kong, and throughout Asia. Increasingly, pressure caused by value creation modern industry requires people to be bottlenecks? inquisitive, creative, flexible and self-motivated. The Asian educational system, however, still “Cloning” Talent: The DNAm© tends to focus on developing people to fit of Excellence within the older, industrial model. So, people get trained in rote learning, giving the “correct” If you can’t afford to wait for the educational answer, and following instructions. establishment to produce the sorts of people that you need to fill your mission critical roles, The problem gets further compounded when what alternatives do you have? Clearly, you we look at value-adding roles. Not only do have to do it yourself in some way. For basic they require these inquisitive, creative, flexible roles, standardized training programmes can and self-motivated people. They also require probably fill the gap. But, what do you do special skills that have, historically, only been with mission critical roles? Especially those passed down from generation to generation where there is a “guild effect” operating? It’s within companies or industry segments. the thesis of this paper that working with
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“‘Mental DNA’” and Competitive Advantage” Mental DNA – called DNAm for short – The researcher was somewhat flabbergasted. provides a viable approach. It is possible to They had not even landed on the rig, and rapidly develop people to fill mission critical the problem was already identified. Curious, roles, even if these roles are complex and he asked the obvious question: “how do you sometimes even mysterious. know?” The answer was very cryptic. “The music of the rig”, replied the oilman. What to I mean by Mental DNA? Basically, every single profession, every art form, and When you think about it, of course, the oilman every mission critical role, has many had developed a skill set that relied on the associated “personal processes” that underlie overall “sound envelope” of the oilrig to help successful performance and mastery. These him diagnose problems with the rig. If you’ve “personal processes” happen inside the ever driven long distance you will have the minds and the bodies of the practitioners, personal experience of doing something and consist of varying combinations of mental similar. steps, perceptual filters, beliefs, values, and emotional patterns. People who have You will be driving along, probably mastered a particular mission critical role daydreaming, and all-of-a-sudden there is have, in fact, developed a unique set of these a change in the “noise” of the car. Immediately “personal processes” that underpin their you pay attention, and you run through a mastery of the role. These “masters” have series of tests very quickly in your mind. Has either learned, or stumbled upon, specific the road surface changed? Have you heard internal strategies that allow them to do the this sound before? Is it in the engine or in role much better than their peers. the wheels or something else? Is it rhythmic? Etc. It’s almost like you have a menu of To give an example, some years ago I was different questions in your mind, and you run told of a researcher who went to a deep sea down the items one by one. oil rig with an oil man who was renowned for identifying and fixing a wide range of oilrig You use these questions to very quickly type problems. The trip to the oilrig was set satisfy yourself about whether or not you up so a problem on the rig could be identified have a serious problem on your hands. Most and repaired, and so the researcher could times you don’t. The point here is that, as identify the basis of the oilman’s unique skill. an experienced driver, you have a very specific set of mental processes that you As the rubber dingy they were riding pulled use to diagnose the situation with your car. up alongside the rig, the researcher asked: Just as the oilman had for diagnosing “how are you going to start looking for the problems with the oilrig. problem?” Industrial Colour Matching: Similar situations To which the oilman immediately replied: “I apply in many other fields of endeavour. In already know what it is”. the area of colour matching industrial paints,
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“‘Mental DNA’” and Competitive Advantage” for example, a small number of people are Contrary to the portrayals of Investment able to do the job very well. The majority of Bankers in movies, the really outstanding others are quite average, and struggle in the “Rainmakers” appear to be very laid back role. When you explore the differences and quite humble. They are quite capable of between the two types of people – the totally redirecting a meeting, or changing average and the masters – you discover very people’s minds, but they do this more with specific differences in how they approach the well-placed and thoughtful questions than job. For instance, the successful matchers with any flashy performance. They also have have created a mental library of cases that a set of interesting, core values that set them they can compare with very quickly (often at apart from others. the unconscious level). Less successful matchers don’t have the same mental Baseball Excellence: A fascinating story I discipline. The successful matchers also have came across some time ago concerns a rich representations for every colour match young boy who was playing in a Junior that they have ever done, whereas the more Baseball team in the U.S. Apparently this average matchers have mental young boy was unable to hit the ball at all. representations that are more single His coach, seeing his distress, decided to dimensional. teach him a simple trick. The coach taught him to visualize a spot on the ball that was Contrary to what you might expect, the ability being pitched towards him. He was asked, to perceive in colour may not be quite so quite simply, just to focus on the dot, and critical. I have been told that one of the most swing the bat. successful colour matchers who ever worked for one particular company just happened to Armed with this new technique, the young be colour blind. man started to hit the ball more and more frequently until finally he came out at the top Investment Banking: Within the field of of his league. He went on to go to college Investment Banking, the ability to “make rain” and in college he played in the senior college is highly valued. Essentially, a “Rainmaker” is baseball team. According to the story he an individual who has mastered the multiple was a star hitter. When asked how he was skills of communicating, selling, organizing, able to achieve such a powerful performance, and finance. This translates into the ability to he commented that it came to him naturally, land projects and deals that are worth tens and that he had always been able to hit the of millions of dollars (at a time) to the ball this way. Investment Bank. When you start to explore the differences between “Rainmakers” and So What? As these stories begin to illustrate, Investment Bankers who are viewed as more the difference between average and masterful “solid”, you also discover important performance in any mission critical role can differences. be traced to quite specific mental and emotional processes within the individuals
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“‘Mental DNA’” and Competitive Advantage” who are performing the role. This concept Turning DNAm into Real Value is different to the idea of “talent”. When we talk about talent, people naturally assume The implications of using this approach for that it is somehow inherent to the person talent development are enormous. In just a (read genetic) and that it cannot be very short period of time it is possible to trained. It is, somehow, God-given and replicate the essence of peak performance immutable. in a mission critical role across most of the key people within a company. When you consider that this talent is actually a set of finely tuned mental programmes, For instance, in a project which I ran several however, the situation is very different. Firstly, years ago I worked with “Rainmakers” in an it is possible to first trace, then identify and Investment Bank. The DNAm© model that articulate, the specific differences between we extracted from the “Rainmakers” was average and masterful performance in a given propagated across a core subset of bankers mission critical role. in the firm, leading to rapid growth of the business, and enhanced ability of the firm to Even more importantly, once you have land big ticket deals. This led to significant identified the differences and pinpointed the growth of the bank’s business overall. internal processes that really matter, it is then possible to train other people so that they In a different context, a medium sized factoring can replicate the talent. In effect, you might based finance company in Hong Kong, we say that you are “cloning” peak performance. created a DNAm © model of Portfolio We call this process DNAm© – the process of Managers. In this particular case the mission modelling mental “DNA”. critical role involved managing a wide range of clients who were signed up to use the Not Competencies: An important point to finance company’s factoring service. The make is that this is NOT the same as defining Portfolio Managers were charged with the competencies. Rather, what is required is a (quite difficult) job of encouraging clients to level of micro-analysis that identifies specific maximize their use of the factoring service psychological processes and steps used by and, at the same time, protect the finance master performers. A competency, by company against downside risks. This comparison, would be a general description company had only two, at most three, people and label of the overall ability to generate who had the right “feel” for the role. results using these “personal processes”. A competency would give you a guide as After modelling the best three people we then to where you could start looking, but it worked with all the Portfolio Managers on the would not provide a model of what a team, transferring the model to each of them. top performer is actually doing to be so As a consequence, in subsequent years, the successful. company experienced solid growth and an enviably low level of bad debt – significantly
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“‘Mental DNA’” and Competitive Advantage” below the targets that had been set. In “an association of people with similar addition, staff turnover dropped significantly. interests or pursuits”. In mission critical This was partly in response to the common roles, you often get unofficial groupings of understanding and alignment generated by “the experts” who tend to try to control the DNAm© process. access to the knowledge and skills that guarantee them their jobs. A DNAm © The value created by the process of modelling modelling process, when properly Mental DNA and role specific excellence executed, can broaden the population who comes from a number of different areas. Those have the necessary skills. This in turn helps that you can immediately identify include: to create more of a balanced bargaining situation.
• Increased Bandwidth: When you model • Common Language: Another, very excellence and role it out in a company, important benefit is that the modelling the first benefit that you see is a massively process and subsequent rollout into an increased bandwidth. With the same organization can create a common number of people you are able to handle language. People find that they are able to significantly more business, at much higher talk more meaningfully about what they are quality levels. This will inevitably show up doing in a role because they now have on the bottom line and in major KPI’s. words to describe their internal processes. This leads to greater mutual understanding, • Faster Growth: The increased bandwidth which translates into much higher levels of and the shortened training cycle translate coordination and, ultimately, lowered costs. into much faster growth for the company. If there is business to be had, your chances • Sidestep Barriers to Learning: Finally, there of winning it, and of profiting from it, go up is a very subtle benefit that derives from sharply. the way a DNAm© process is rolled out. If you’ve been involved with any form of • Reduced Waste: While not the direct focus organizational development you will be of a DNAm© process, you will be surprised aware that you often come face-to-face at the collateral benefits that you can enjoy. with the “training disconnect”, and with Because of enhanced skill levels you will “NIH” – Not Invented Here. Even when a find that unnecessary mistakes and wastage technique or approach is very good, people get reduced, also helping to contribute to in a company will often reject it because the bottom line. it did not come from their own world. The DNAm© process very neatly sidesteps this • Reduce the “Guild Effect”and Greater problem. The model that is rolled out comes Control: Another benefit that is quite subtle, from inside the company, which already and still very important, is what I call a gives it a great deal of validity. And, even reduced “guild effect”. A guild is defined as more importantly, the people being modelled
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“‘Mental DNA’” and Competitive Advantage” are those who are universally recognized For instance, in modelling one senior leader within the company as being the true in an organization I was shadowing him when experts. The opportunity to learn what the a crisis call came in. Most senior people would experts do, and become part of a select have responded to such a call with a burst of club, is a very powerful motivating force. angry emotion. However, this expert did something quite different. He settled back in Steps to Leveraging Mental DNA his chair, began to breath more slowly and deeply, and settled into what I call a “deep You might think that the easiest way to work listening pose”. This response (and the reasons with Mental DNA is to get the experts to run for it) later became a part of the model we a training course. At least, it sounds were building. reasonable. The problem is that experts very frequently don’t know what they are doing. When you get into the process of actually Or, rather, what they tell you they are doing developing a DNAm model, there are a number is generally quite different to what they are of steps that you need to go through. The actually doing. Because they are so good at order in which you implement these steps can what they do experts are not able to easily vary depending on issues relating to the articulate the knowledge that they have. Nor organizational environment. The main can they say exactly how they achieve the components remain the same, however. results that they do. Because of their mastery, they are operating at a level known as The DNAm© process involves the following “unconscious competence”. key steps:
In order to get around this problem, you need 1. Identify Master Performers to use people who are trained in the process of modelling excellence to pull the model out The first step is to actually identify people in of the masters. DNAm Modellers are expert the organization who are master performers in identifying the internal psychological and in the mission critical role that is being emotional processes that underlie excellence modelled. This is not as easy as it might sound. in any given role. For instance, in one project that we were involved with the person commissioning the A skilled DNAm Modeller will interview experts project was actually the one most qualified to in a special way that pulls out the essence of be the model. However, for a number of what the expert is doing. Often, in order to reasons, he was initially quite reticent about get the best possible data, the DNAm Modeller being an exemplar. will actually shadow the expert as he or she goes about the role. This is important because, Getting the right people as the models is very just as with the oilman who could hear “the important, for two main reasons. Firstly, you music of the rig”, it’s important to catch an really want people who stand out from the expert at the exact moment when a key skill crowd in terms of their skills in the area being gets activated. modelled. If they don’t stand out then it is
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“‘Mental DNA’” and Competitive Advantage” unlikely that they have the necessary process, then a customer qualification process. breakthrough components that you are really You have a customer approach process, a looking for. If someone really stands out from needs identification process, a closing process, the crowd, however, you are much more etc. confident that they are doing something fundamentally different when compared with It’s important to do this step because a mission other people. This is where you will find the critical role will need to handle a range of real value that can propel your company different process elements. Often, in fact, one forward. of the reasons that a person is an expert comes from the fact that they have a very Secondly, if your models are people that different view of the overall process that they everyone agrees are truly masters in the area are working within when compared to more you are exploring, when rollout time comes average performers. Mapping the value you will have a lot less selling to do. Others process, with the help of the experts, identifies in the organization will want to know what if this in itself is an important element of the makes the “masters” so much better than the model. average. If the models are not truly viewed as masters, however, you lose the benefit of this 4. Shadowing and Deep Diving effect. Once the overall work process has been 2. Identify Comparators mapped out, the detailed stage of the DNAm© process begins. You generally start with a The second step in the process is to identify series of special interviews, alternately with average performers who you can compare the experts and then the average performers. against your experts. This is vitally important, These interviews explore the boundaries of because it gives you a baseline for identifying the role, and the different tasks that a person what really generates results with your experts. needs to perform in that role. If your average performer and your expert both smoke cigars, for instance, you can And, you go much deeper. For every critical probably assume that cigar smoking doesn’t piece of the role you explore with each person have much to do with the expert’s the particular way in which they go about performance. doing each task.
3. Map the Value Process Wherever possible you also shadow your models as they go about doing their tasks. Once you know who you are modelling, you You then use your observations to dig more need to map the work process that is involved. deeply into the mental processes and For instance, in a sales situation you have a emotional foundations that the models bring number of different process steps that make to their work. up the complete performance “set” for the role. There is generally a customer identification
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“‘Mental DNA’” and Competitive Advantage” 5. Micro-Analysis and Patterning know that you have found your model.
The shadowing and deep diving create a If the results still aren’t there, and don’t look wealth of data. Once you have determined like they will come even if the recipient is that you have collected most of the data following the model faithfully you know you required, you proceed with a very detailed have missed something. At that point you analysis. You do this by comparing your need to go back to your data and look for models and your average performers on a what you missed the first time around. You number of dimensions. This includes the beliefs do this until people who use the model start that they bring to their work, specific knowledge getting results that are moving in the direction areas that seem to be important, mental “tricks of what the top performers are getting. of the trade” that the experts use, etc. Payback Time As you do this, you are really looking for one thing – the difference that makes the difference. The final step in the entire DNAm© process You are engaged in a pattern recognition involves rolling the model out to those in the exercise, and a piece of creative detective organization who need it. Depending on the work, bent on perceiving those perhaps subtle, nature of the role that you are modelling, and but definitely very important differences that the culture of the organization, many different lead to the experts getting results that are rollout methodologies can be used. While significantly better than the “norm”. documentary approaches can add some value, most DNAm© transfer needs to be done As you identify these differences, you proceed using “human contact”. In other words, face- to build them into a model that will enable you to-face interactions of some sort. This is to articulate very clearly both the how and the because of the subtle nature of important why of the experts’ model. What do they do elements of the models of excellence. that’s different? Why does it matter (i.e. what Frequently, these subtle pieces can only be impact does it have) AND, how, exactly, are fully communicated and transferred in a they able to do what they do so well? human-to-human interaction.
6. Test the Model Whether you choose to do model transfer in groups or via one-on-one interactions depends Once you have determined what you believe on two main factors: status and interactivity. to be the key elements of the model of excellence for a particular role you get to the • Interactivity refers to the degree to which most interesting piece of the process – testing elements of the model need to be the model. This involves coaching one or two experienced in a complex environment with average performers in using the key elements different people interacting together. If of the model, and then observing the results. elements of a model require this, then some If your new protégés start to get outcomes degree of group work is indicated. that approach what the experts get, then you
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“‘Mental DNA’” and Competitive Advantage” • Status refers to the status of model recipients in the organization. Often, models of excellence require deep reflection, and a challenge to the personal beliefs that people hold quite dear. When a model recipient is already high status in an organization it’s very difficult to have conversations around those elements of a model in public. Because of this, with high status individuals we would almost always choose a one-to-one coaching methodology.
Conclusion
In conclusion, then, I’d like to offer that a process of modelling Mental DNA provides a useful and powerful methodology for dealing with one of the major business challenges faced by companies today – a lack of talent for mission critical roles.
Using a DNAm© process a company can distil the key factors that lead to peak performance in mission critical roles. Once distilled, a model of excellence can then be transferred to any number of people in a company, increasing bandwidth, reducing costs, and overall contributing to the company’s bottom line.
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Originally published 2005-03-17 · Legacy CMS article #7079