Two years ago a client asked me to build a talent development program that was strongly interwoven with talent management. One of their requirements was to adhere to the 70/20/10 mindset.

There are quite a few talent management interventions that we’ve started to take for granted, like talent pools, talent reviews and talent boards (Bryan, Joyce, 2007).

Het is onze missie om talenten enthousiast, gecommitteerd en betrokken te houden, zodat zij niet zullen overwegen de organisatie te verlaten.

Since 2008 I’ve been actively engaged in designing, developing and delivering talent development programs and talent management infrastructure for fortune 100 companies.

When preparing my opening for TEDxStrijp, I looked back to themoment when my passion for talent was ignited. It would have been so self evident to pinpoint those origins to the wonderful training I received at the Pulsar Institute, but to my surprise it all began with a chance encounter, an offbeat remark and a huge hangover.

Last Monday I invited our Forzes colleague Marcel van der Pol to join a quarterly talent meeting at one of my clients. Marcel is a gifted theater producer and performing artist. During the presentation of his third book on the 11th h of June the idea was born to invite him over.

Here’s what happened.

Just a few days ago I got the wonderful news that my proposal to help create a talent philosophy at a Dutch multinational has been accepted. When we were talking about the scope of my assignment the VP HR came up with this lovely description: a talent philosophy. One of my deliverables will be to describe two scenarios for an integrated talent approach to talent management: one for the near term and a future scenario. In the future I foresee a far more data-driven talent approach. A prime enabler will be the integration of Enterprise Resource Planning systems, like SAP, with Learning Management Systems, such as SuccesFactors.

When an ERP system and an LMS become integrated, I see talent surrounded by a cloud of data.

Experiences gained and jobs, assignments, projects, programs undertaken. Lessons learned and courses followed. Skills sharpened and competencies gained. Performance achieved and potential shown. All these data-items and more will form a mesmerising and living cloud of big data on both learning and performing. Its intended use is to accurately match and map talent to opportunity, both in terms of jobs and roles in projects, programs and short term assignments.

Ideal right? I agree. In a multinational this will be the only way to glimpse the talent landscape across countries, regions and divisions. It will free talent, or at least its data, from the limits of local oversight and the potential this holds for strategic talent management is simply huge.

But is does this pretty picture paint the entire landscape? Of that I’m not so sure. We at ROI on Talent are driven by the belief that more than 60% of talents in organisations remain latent, undiscovered, untapped and therefore under-utilised. However powerful an integrated HR system may be: if we don’t solve this puzzle, we’ll end up wasting talent, opportunity and, in the end, money.

What we do know however from our own experience, is that leaders, managers and colleagues are able tap into this untapped ‘talent pool’ by eveloping their capacity to spot and flourish their own talents and those of their team-mates. When we augment the digital talent landscape by strengthening this organisation-wide capacity to spot and flourish people, we’ll have pained a truly wonderful vista. This is something we aspire to: do you?

It’s our mission to keep talents enthused, committed and engaged, so that they won’t consider leaving your company.

Ask any talented person what gave their careers a boost and they’ll never answer “a training or workshop”. Trust me, I’ve been asking this question since 2006.

This weeks blog is 'live' from cafe de Ysbreeker in Amsterdam. The title could just as well have been ‘the story of Steven’ and although it obviously isn't, I’ll be telling his story in a little while.

Lynda Gratton is op dit moment de wereldwijde autoriteit als het gaat om “De Toekomst van Werk”. Zij doet een beroep op bedrijven en instellingen om de ervaringen die zij talenten aanbieden te herontwerpen, dusdanig dat zij frequente functie- en rolwisselingen mogelijk maken. Haar conclusie wordt ingegeven door het feit dat “highbrow” professionals geen baan voor het leven meer ambiëren, sterker nog, de frequentie waarop zij van baan wisselen neemt alleen maar toe.

Suddenly a theme emerged as I started to prepare for this week’s newsletter and blog: “what the future holds”. As you may know, a substantial part of my writing is centred on the future of talent and on that topic there’s actually quite a bit to share. I’d like to introduce you to two events that put the future center stage. I’d love to meet you personally at either one of them (or both)!