Challenge    A digital transformation services firm recently acquired a boutique analytics firm. A 3-year  integration plan was met with unexpected hurdles owing to cultural variances in people  procedures. One primary challenge was with respect to talent acquisition practices. While the  holding firm adhered to a traditional hierarchical structure, the set up they acquired was more  flat and largely based on millennial talent. Mid-level managers formed the intrinsic key to make  this integration successful, however, they needed to align on new hiring practices to meet  resource skill mix required for new projects. The key decision makers involved a mix of varying  superiority levels and domain expertise which led to varying degrees of participation in prior  group ponderings.    Selection    In order to create a safe environment to discuss differing ideas, we leveraged the mind- mapping tool in a series of brainstorming sessions. The objective of these brainstorming  sessions was to create a common ground for talent attainment needs and bubble up values  and skill sets that would match it. We chose a recipe of brainstorming techniques along with  mind-mapping in order to eliminate biases arising from the HIPPO effect.    Application    We started by tapering down the group from 30 decision makers to 7 decision makers who  are demonstrative of the larger group. Before the first brainstorming meeting, we shared an  agenda to the group with 3 questions that needed to be spoken in the brainstorming session.  Through the week leading up to the brainstorming meeting, we started informal communication  over e-mail on ideas that the group was thinking through about the end-state vision of the new  talent acquisition process, references on industry best practices, current skill matrix and  measures of evaluation of a candidate.   On the day of the brainstorming session, we used the nominal group technique to elicit ideas  from each person in the room to address this question - “What are the qualities you seek in  an ideal candidate at x level?” to start off. Instead of a traditional whiteboarding session in the  boardroom, we shifted to a break-out area with glass walls. The moderator of the session  handed post-it notes, pen and paper to every person. Every quality was written on a post-it  note and pasted on the glass wall as it was submitted to the moderator. We continued this  exercise till the whole group was exhausted with inputs on that particular question.     Thereafter, the moderator grouped similar post-its together and the group took a coffee-break.  The grouped themes were logged in an excel worksheet. The same process was repeated to  answer the other 2 questions i.e. “If you could, what would you change about the existing  talent acquisition process?” and “What are your non-negotiable values at the workplace?”.  The post-it notes were grouped, posted on the walls and exposed to the larger group for the  rest of the week for observation and inputs for the rest of the week. The moderator collected  feedback and shared a summary of the information elicited from this exercise in the form of a  mind-map (used xmind).    Insight & Approach    With this exercise, I learned that it’s easy to articulate complex ideas if the problem is  deconstructed in an approachable manner. Discovery a common ground with a diverse set of  participants with changing technical and business expertise became easier once multitude of  outlooks were mapped into themed values/qualities/skill sets of a potential candidate.  Changing from a routine approach to brainstorming with a new format and different physical  environment stimulated the whole group to participate more openly that led to seamless  collaboration over a difficult problem.

Alternatively, we could have leveraged the visualization tool to showcase existing talent  acquisition processes and an ideal employee map to encourage a directed conversation. If  the focal point of the discussion was something visual, it would help stakeholders to come to  the root of an issue faster.

