Ignore the Talent Management Gods at Your Own Peril!

There aren’t too many times when the cosmic message is so clear, you just have to chuckle (and obey). So this was just too hard to ignore. 

First, we put up a poll question asking book club members which book we should discuss after Outliers. By a narrow margin you select Mass Career Customization, Aligning the Workplace with Today’s Nontraditional Workforce by Cathy Benko and Anne C. Weisberg. 

Days later Cathy Benko agrees to do an exclusive online webcast for our book club (details below) to help us understand the transformations taking place in the modern workforce. Then, a book club member, Paul comments on the entry announcing the next book with this:

I just picked up the latest issue of Time Magazine (5/25/09; vol 173, No.20) - cover story "The Future of Work." Just wanted to let the community know, this is a really timely article about a challenge we are all facing everyday - how to plan/accommodate for a workforce that no longer accepts the principles of/thrives in a traditional corporate ladder structure. I was particularly excited to see that the next book for our club - Mass Career Customization serves as reference for the "We're Getting Off the Ladder" section (page 45)... check out the online version. 

Looking forward to this book - when is it coming out?

OK, we select the book, the author agrees to do a free webcast just for us and the whole thing shows up as the feature article and on the cover of Time. I would suggest you read this book and plan on attending the webcast to avoid angering the TM gods. 

Where Groundswell had some great ideas, and Outliers had some interesting theories, Mass Career Customization is the framework for how work will get done and careers will be built in lattice organizations.

To answer Paul’s question: Mass Career Customization will begin shipping to all book club members within the next two weeks.  The webcast is scheduled for June 30th - we will be posting a registration link and details in the next couple of days. 

I promise, everyone will have something to say about MCC, so get ready to jump into some great conversations.