Figure Steps to High ACE Organization
The first section of this book addressed the talent challenges for organizations in today’s marketplace. I also discussed the business imperative — achieving a higher level of results needed to survive and flourish in an unforgiving marketplace — and the criticality of optimizing talent to reach this goal. The book then introduced the People Equity concepts of Alignment, Capabilities, and Engagement (ACE) as a means of managing and measuring how well talent is optimized in terms of the value it can create for both the organization and the individual.
Let’s now turn to describing how to create a high ACE organization — an organization that performs at the highest levels by optimizing its critical talent resources.
My colleagues and I at the Metrus Institute have discovered seven key ingredients or steps that organizations can take to become a high ACE organization (see Figure II.1). Each of these steps will be covered in a single chapter with the exception of Talent Processes, which will be covered in the four chapters within Section IV. The remainder of the book, except the concluding chapter, will discuss the actions you can take to create or enhance these seven crucial People Equity ingredients.
Three Key Stakeholders
In developing high ACE organizations, three groups of stakeholders have proven to be critical for the transformation: the top executive team, managers, and HR professionals. We have never seen a successful, sustainable transformation without the executive team being on board. And if the transformation is to occur at a rate faster than a glacial crawl, managers also need to participate actively. Finally, although we have seen successful transformations without significant HR support, not having HR’s involvement means that other stakeholders must assume accountability for the roles that HR professionals typically play. Section II will focus on the roles of each of these three groups and the requirements needed to gain their support and involvement
I will begin this discussion in Chapter 4 by focusing on the criticality of awareness and education. Without these, convincing people to change behavior is extremely difficult. Each of the three primary stakeholders will be discussed in this chapter.
Chapter 5 addresses the role of the executive team in creating a high ACE organization. The support of this group is central to becoming a high ACE organization. The good news is that senior executives are often one of the easiest groups to convince. Once they understand ACE, they typically “get it” right away.
Not enough can be said about the role that the immediate manager or coach of a team plays in creating a high ACE organization, the subject of Chapter 6. Most managers have blind spots with respect to how their own behaviors aid or hinder creating a high ACE team. However, most of these blind spots can be overcome with the right support.
The next Sections of the book will address the other four stages in Figure Section III will discuss the development of talent strategies, scorecards, and measures — steps 4 and 5. If you have not defined the essential talent requirements and what optimization should look like in your business context, you risk running adrift. Furthermore, strategic management without measures dissolves into an unfocused exercise, usually resulting in teams, functions, and entire organizations wandering without feedback, without knowing whether or not they have hit or missed the mark, or without knowing when or by how much they need to recalibrate.
Section IV will address Step 6 — talent processes. Another valuable set of levers in becoming a high ACE organization are the talent processes and how well they are coordinated throughout the entire talent lifecycle. High ACE organizations not only recruit, onboard, train, and manage performance at the highest level, they also optimize the overall talent lifecycle so that each of these processes is integrated into a coherent whole. The last stage of creating a high ACE organization (Step 7) is firmly embedding ACE thinking into the culture. Old habits die hard. Chapter 13, along with a call to action in Chapter 14, will compose our final section of the book. These chapters will provide some great practices for avoiding the “fall back” trap and an extensive menu of ideas for getting started on your road to high ACE.