I had the pleasure of attending two very valuable business breakfasts this week. A Twin Cities HR Leadership Round Table sharing best practices on the evolution of Talent Management and the Twin Cities Social Media breakfast hosted by Partner Up and Deluxe Corporation HQ. Two very different groups, agendas and turnouts. And most of the discussion in both meetings was very focused on a common theme: Communication.
In attending my first social media breakfast I was in awe of the turnout and how connections in social media advance much faster when you extend them offline. Both presentations offered some thoughtful insights including tips and tools on the evolution of communication, connecting, collaborating, consuming and creating all with a much stronger sense of being part of a new community.
How these transformative tools impact corporations and careers was certainly part of the consideration at the Round Table. The notion of building communities of talent and leveraging technology to communicate and connect more effectively internally were offered up for discussion. It was evident through the dialogue that even some of the most highly regarded, progressive organizations in the Twin Cities are just beginning to consider how to approach Talent Management more holistically and strategically with recognition that retaining and engaging the High Potentials/High Performers will be essential to accomplishing key business goals.
It was obvious to me after attending both breakfast meetings that the quick and aggressive application of new tools and technology will afford more progressive organizations an advantage in their quest to build high engagement work cultures that offer mutliple connection points to our varied communities in the workplace. And no doubt that will be a heavy focus on the agenda at next week’s Annual SHRM Conference and Exposition. As 10,000 HR Professionals descend on New Orleans they can look forward to a new conference experience that will include an offical conference blog, a steady twitterstream and of course a variety of pods, videos, media releases, reviews and updates travelling across the web in real time. I am looking forward to participating in the conversation, being part community and surviving the 105 degree heat in NOLA!
