What changes a person from unemployable to jobable in the
supply chain world?
This article suggests that the answer to this question might
be unexpected.
In the supply chain world the marketable skills of today very
quickly become constraints to progress, today’s standard operating procedures
are tomorrow’s unsafe practices and the earth changing flash of inspiration becomes
the norm in no time at all.
Businesses which succeed in this environment are imbued with
a special magic which drives them to levels of success far beyond what is
predictable from their balance sheets, their products or even the
qualifications of their people; in other words the infrastructure, technology,
people and processes of those businesses have been combined in a unique way to
produce outstanding results.
What does it take to scale that magic to other
organisations?
From the human point of view, that magic translates into
super competency -- the ability of each team member to add very high levels of value
whilst at the same time having the ability to effect change (or at least adapt
to it) very quickly.
In these times of massive transition throughout the world,
many of which are happening at an exponential rate, there are both tremendous
opportunities and feelings of uncertainty. Each team member in the organisation
must be able to make sense of all of this
What makes people who are successful in such a world?
Certainly, some technical skills are the starting point but even this raises
some interesting ideas. For example, we see civil engineers morphing into
extremely successful end to end supply chain solutions developers and lawyers
transforming into credible business development managers.
Both academic and occupational institutions seem unable to
satisfy these demands – employers complain that academic graduates can’t apply
theory to practical problems and that that those with occupational
qualifications can’t think out of the box and come up with solutions when the
rules change.
There is a newer approach in the occupational field which
suggests that employer/ industry needs would be better served by structuring
courses into theory, practice and workbased experience elements. This is
unfortunately likely to produce more of the same (although possibly at a higher
level) – people who can operate efficiently in today’s world but who don’t have
what is necessary to adapt to radical and rapid change.
Whilst the necessity for technical specialists will always
be there, what these examples show is the increasing need for more generalised
skills: the ability to work in teams and build relationships, to solve
problems, to think strategically, pro-actively and outside of silos.
Are these skills which can be taught and, if so, how?
Radical change calls for radical adjustments and today’s
Supply Chain industry needs a learning environment in which:
·
Learning is based on challenges which are
structured to ensure that solutions are found through teamwork. Teams should
comprise not only learner syndicates but mentors, subject matter experts and
other real people.
·
Each challenge must require that a number of
different solutions are presented with a fully motivated case for the adoption
of one of them;
·
Recommended solutions presented must include the
“what ifs” of contingency planning.
Since there are no correct
answers to such challenges, they need to be assessed against:
·
Flexibility of approach
·
Extent of team involvement
·
Ability to transfer learning from one context to
another
·
Workability of solutions
·
Adaptability of solution(s) to changing
conditions
·
Application of new and relevant technology
Is this a system which could work
in your environment?
If there are ideas here which have
some appeal, how would you go about implementing them?
How could the current system be
adapted to these ideas?
These answers will form the basis
of subsequent discussions.
