Avoid A Sinking Ship With Skills Planning

Will Modern Businesses Meet The Same Fate As The Titanic?

The RMS Titanic was a modern marvel when it embarked on the doomed maiden voyage in 1912. Despite four decades of sea-faring experience, Captain E.J. Smith ignored seven warnings from his crew and other ships in the area confirming hazardous conditions In the time leading up to this journey.

Captain Smith shared, “I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern ship-building has gone beyond that.” We will never know all the factors that contributed to the decisions made that night; however, we do know that there was an undeniable level of complacency and misplaced confidence.

Can you imagine a business today operating without any consideration of potential threats? When leaders, managers, and CEOs settle into complacency, they are unknowingly exposing the business to a myriad of threats. This attitude has the potential to bring the brightest organizations to a grinding halt. The Titanic was steaming at maximum speed when a lookout shouted: “Iceberg, right ahead!” The crew's reaction was fast. It took 30 seconds to start maneuvering away, but at that point, it was too late.

Every day the leaders, managers, and CEOs of the business world proceed at the helm of their vessel, without an accurate understanding of the state of the company below decks. Complacency creates an environment of reactive resource and skills planning. In business, you need to be able to shift course quickly, and the linchpin is having accurate information about your team and the skills needed to keep alignment. Ignoring this aspect of leading people can carry grave consequences.

Even more troubling is the fact that 54% of organizations acknowledge they struggle to identify and assess the depth of skills gaps in their workforce, according to a research report conducted by CompTIA. Whether you are leading change or just trying to keep your competitive edge, understanding the current skill set in your business and where gaps exist is critical. Once you have that, critical decision making and proactive planning can begin.

The speed at which change happens in business today compounds the need for a comprehensive skills management solution. Achieving desired outcomes is contingent on understanding what skills are needed and where the existing capabilities of their employees lie. The grey area between these points is what’s become known as the skills gap. In execution, this occurs when current employees don’t have the skills needed to sustain progress or perform against new workplace demands.

Like the Titanic, the iceberg is the market challenge and our ability to be prepared is the skills gap. Ignoring the problem increases the probability of failure. Planning and aligning your current resources to your future needs means potentially averting disaster and honing your competitive edge. It is too late if the realization occurs when the company begins to struggle with high turnover or employee under-performance. By the time these circumstances begin to appear, the focus shifts to patching holes in the ship instead of trying to prevent the problems in the first place.

Myth #1: We Know Exactly What Skills Are Present in the Organization

How do you know if your organization is suffering from human resource blindspots? If people are viewed as interchangeable, leaders have an inventory of roles, but less insight on the combination of skills needed to fill that role - you have blind spots. The majority of the crew serving under Captain Smith were not trained sailors. Approximately 5% of the 900-person staff that embarked were trained seamen, and almost none had familiarity with the vessel. The impact of this oversight resulted in one of the most tragic events in maritime history.

Your people are so much more than the role they occupy, so much more than a name on an org chart, and so much more than a number impacted by a reorganization. You need an active skills management strategy that ensures the skills of your employees align with your business goals.

Myth #2: Role Planning is Sufficient to Meet Future Needs

Change is a constant regardless of industry. Forecasting future personnel on a roles-based assessment fails to recognize that it is not the role that is valuable in times of change, but the individual, their skills, and their adaptability. The maritime industry changed forever with the sinking of the Titanic. All industry operating procedures were subjected to considerable scrutiny after 1,500 lives were lost because of poor planning, complacency, and overconfidence.

Current roles are not what you need going forward; current skills are not what you need to transform the organization. Future skills are based on strategy, defined at the organization level, refined at the team level, and realized at the individual level.

Myth #3: New Skills are Adequately Available in the Market

Employers embrace the gig economy, the global market characterized by freelance work, in hopes of keeping costs low and talent fresh. The downside is the time and money lost in a continuous hiring process. Consider creating an informed employee development strategy. It was an overall lack of alignment that helped to seal the fate of the Titanic. Leadership didn’t provide clarity around desired outcomes, the crew wasn’t trained to respond with agility, and clear lines of communication were never established. The result was an ineffective response to the emergency.

Effective management of your team’s skills is a long-term commitment, and a worthwhile investment in your company’s greatest asset -- your people. Organizations need better skill assessment tools to visualize, understand and manage employee skills. With this information leaders, managers, and CEOs can transition to a proactive, informed strategy for optimizing their workforce and avoid a sinking ship.