unlocking the passion of the explorer: develop talent your company can't live without

Unlocking the Explorer's Passion: Develop Talent Your Company Can’t Live Without

Performance pressures and common responses

Copyright © 2014 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.

Both consumers and workers are demanding more valueToday companies feel mounting pressures

Companies are under mounting performance

pressures because consumers and workers are capturing the value

companies create

In the face of limitless options and low switching

costs, brand-agnostic consumers demand more

value at less cost

Creative workers are increasingly valued and command higher cash

compensation


ROA for the U.S. economy (1965–2012)

Source: Data from Compustat, Deloitte analysis

Return on Assets (ROA) for U.S. public companies has fallen 75%Companies’ performance has declined

1965

1967

1969

1971

1973

1975

1977

1979

1981

1983

1985

1987

1989

1991

1993

1995

1997

1999

2001

2003

2005

2007

2009

2011

0%

1%

2%

3%

4%

5%

6%

Economy ROA Linear (Economy ROA)

4.1%

0.9%


ROA and U.S. unemployment rate (1976–2012)

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Compustat, Deloitte analysis

Short-sighted measures like layoffs have short-term, diminishing returns Companies focus on the “wrong” things

1976

1978

1980

1982

1984

1986

1988

1990

1992

1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2004

2006

2008

2010

2012

0.0%

2.0%

4.0%

6.0%

8.0%

10.0%

12.0%

0.0%

0.5%

1.0%

1.5%

2.0%

2.5%

3.0%

3.5%

4.0%

4.5%

Unemployment Rate (%) Economy ROA (%)

Un

emp

loym

ent

Rat

e (%

)

RO

A (

%)

’81-’82: Unemployment from 7.6%-9.7%

’82-’83: ROA from 2.7%-2.8%


’92-’96: ROA from 1.6%-2.3%


’08-’12: ROA from 0.5%-1.8%


’01-’06: ROA from 0.2%-2.2%


We looked into areas of extreme performance improvementCan companies improve performance?

Extreme Sports Online Gaming

Participants in these arenas are deeply passionate


The three attributes come together and reinforce each otherPassion of the Explorer has three attributes

Passion of the Explorer

Commitment to Domain

Questing Connecting

• Long-term commitment

• Desire to make increasing impact

• Actively seek new challenges

• Desire to learn faster

Dispositions

• Learn from others

• Seek deep trust-based relationships with others


Explorers accelerate learning and performance improvement Passion leads to sustained performance

Commitment to Domain– Helps maintain long-range goals and perspectives despite short-

term disruptions and setbacks

Questing Disposition– Builds knowledge and expertise; Explorers embrace challenges as

opportunities to learn and get stronger

Connecting Disposition – Leads Explorers to connect more effectively with those who can help

them learn and improve faster


Companies need passion in an unpredictable world of constant changeEmployee engagement is not enough

Short-term, fleeting

Performance improvement

Organization Ecosystem

Happiness

Long-term, sustaining

Primarily extrinsic

To a role or company

Primarily intrinsic

To an industry or domain

Employee Engagement Passion of the Explorer

Timeframe

Motivation

End result

Commitment

Relationships

Passion in today’s workforce


Only 11 percent of surveyed workers possess all three attributesExplorers are not common

Source: John Hagel, John Seely Brown, and Tamara Samoylova. “Unlocking the Passion of the Explorer ,” Deloitte University Press, September 17, 2013

11%

89%

Explorers

The rest of workforce

Worker Passion in a Survey of 3,000 Fulltime U.S. Workers


Explorers are more common in smaller companies and certain functionsPassion is not evenly distributed

1 to 999 1,000 or more

13%

9%

Other

Supply Chain/Logistics

Sales

Marketing

Manufacturing

Management

IT/Technology

Human Resources

Customer Service

Accounting/Finance

8%

13%

13%

17%

7%

16%

9%

7%

5%

7%

Passion of the Explorer by Company Size

Passion of the Explorer by Function

Source: John Hagel, John Seely Brown, and Tamara Samoylova. “Unlocking the Passion of the Explorer ,” Deloitte University Press, September 17, 2013


Many organizations are designed on a premise of conformity and actively discourage passion

These results are not surprising

20th century companies were built for scalable efficiency:

• Tightly defined jobs • Processes to support plans and forecasts • Secrecy and lack of collaboration with outsiders• Internally-driven innovation • Failure is not an option

In these environments, Explorers are threatening

Cultivating passion


45 percent of surveyed workers possess at least one attribute of passion resulting in several profiles common across organizations

Many workers have at least one attribute

The Player

The Loyalist

The Connector

The Performer

The Learner

The Mad Scientist

6.6%

8.7%

12.3%

4.3%

8.4%

5.1%“The Player”

“The Loyalist”

“The Connector”

“The Performer”

“The Learner”

“The Mad Scientist”

Commitment

Questing

Connecting

Attributes of Passion in a Survey of 3,000 Fulltime U.S. Workers

45.4%


Bringing Explorers into outdated organizations will limit their potential; we must also address the work environment

Hiring more Explorers may not always help

Hire for Passion not Credentials

Create an Environment to Cultivate Passion+

• To bring more Explorers into your company

• To help Explorers realize their potential

• To cultivate missing attributes of passion in the rest of workforce


Work environment that cultivates passion

• Improve visibility of individuals’ impact on company performance

• Communicate key organizational challenges and the areas workers could impact

• Shift away from a mindset of meeting forecasts to a mindset of constant adaptation

• Help workers craft identities by celebrating what they created or shared


QuestingConnecting

Passion of the

Explorer

Understanding impact fosters commitment



QuestingConnecting

• Design experimentation platforms that combine processes, tools, and management practices

• Build modular processes / products to allow for performance improvement between hand-offs

• Provide context-specific, real time feedback

• Provide time, systems, and tools for reflection; capture and apply lessons learned

Passion of the

Explorer

Work environment that cultivates passionExperimentation cultivates questing


Work environment that cultivates passion


QuestingConnecting

• Design physical and virtual environments that foster serendipitous encounters

• Establish collaboration platforms with ecosystem participants to enable knowledge flows

• Enable workers to connect using tools, such as automatically generated reputation profiles

• Encourage relationship building both within and outside of your organization

Passion of the

Explorer

Collaboration tools enable connections


Can every worker become an Explorer?Yes…if we reframe work from routine processing to creative problem solving

Routine Processing Creative Problem Solving


The Toyota Production System is built to cultivate passion on the front lineCase Study: Toyota cultivates passion

Source: How Toyota Became #1: Leadership Lessons from the World’s Greatest Car Company, David Magee, 2007; Steven J. Spear, “Learning to lead at Toyota,” Harvard Business Review, May 2004.

Toyota Production System (TPS):

• TPS supports on-the-job learning by enabling a series of nested experiments

• Any worker can stop production by pulling the Andon cord for either quality or safety concerns

• The Andon cord helps front line workers impact Toyota’s strategic priorities of safety, quality, and problem solving

Explore more here:

http://dupress.com/articles/unlocking-the-passion-of-the-explorer/


John HagelDirectorDeloitte Consulting [email protected]

Tamara SamoylovaSenior ManagerDeloitte Services [email protected]

Contact info

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


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