KNOWMADS

It used to be that writers like Tom Peters introduced ideas like "War for Talent" as if patriarchal mindsets did not dominate workplace cultures as it is.  When I read a piece shared by Mamen 🐝 Delgado on LinkedIn I was very appreciative of hearing the words of kindred spirits.  When Soraya starts her thoughts by saying that it is not enough just to retain talent, that we should charm talent.  "Love" is still a rare word used to describe how we look at talent, but it is a much more relevant term than "War" is in a 21st Century workplace.   Her article can be read by clicking the picture above or here.

I have many points of affinity with Soraya especially her opening points of adapting to talent and capability.  This is reminiscent of Steve Jobs statement that it does not make sense to hire the most talented people and then tell them what to do. It is not that masculine traits outweigh feminine traits but that to represent a 21st Century mind both men and women need to embrace or at least equalize with the feminine.  Jobs scored great success with his equalization where the feminine that is art shaped his and Jony Ives design thinking.

Soraya draws home the point that modern environments that are volatile and uncertain in their makeup requires a different quality of talent, one that is energetic as much as it is talented and not simply for the sake of execution, but to adapt quickly to the transforming circumstances of the modern workplace. For sure there are archaic management practices that will stick around in leadership psyche that is no longer fit for purpose.  Soraya see's the same thing as I do which is the birth of learning cultures where we benefit from mistakes rather than create punitive cultures - and that goes beyond what Peter Senge saw as learning organizations - because here learning is atomized to individual talent and not a broad brushstroke of an entire organization.

Where Soraya charmed me was in this portion of her article where she says :

"En esta línea, desde las diferentes áreas de RRHH debemos centrar nuestros esfuerzos en seleccionar, atraer, desarrollar, cautivar y enamorar a los denominados “Knowmads“, que son simplemente personas con una gran capacidad de autoaprendizaje, alta proactividad, hiper-digitales, sin miedo al fracaso, creativos y lo más importante de todo, sin una edad determinada."

Soraya Del Portillo Perez

It is here she introduced me to the idea of KNOWMADS and her description reminds me of another term that has been used called "Neo-Generalists".   The difference is that "Knowmads" can also be specialists because here she is talking about a learning based or focused individual and I definitely view myself as a quintessential "knowmad".  I also like the term "knowmad" because it evokes the word "nomad" and that sense of individual being speaks to the alternative to workplaces where groupthink is the major and dominant mindset.   This led me to John Moravec :

And ultimately when we see ourselves as transforming learners with open minds and utilizing learning spaces to express our capability, our vision, our purpose or the depth and breadth of our learning, then that transforms more than the workplace, it transforms the nature of the village we exist in, and ultimately the quality of homes we build as open minded and life embracing learners - and while I do not see HR as the holders of that future, I do see the value of what it means to be a Knowmad and I am proud thus to declare myself a knowmad both here in my online learning spaces and in my offline spaces that is represented by my membership of several Toastmasters clubs.  Humanity is a physical, psychological and organizational truth but it is not the dominant reality still of our group-think and overly marketed workplace - humanity is not a platitude, it is an authenticity without trying to be authentic.  We are human beings who create the human home and not actors who simply work for a living.

My thanks goes out to Mamen Delgado for introducing me to Soraya through her LinkedIn post yesterday.

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