Free Lunch!

By Barry Stern

The Wikipedia-worthy notion of TANSTAAFL or “There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch” is widely embedded in our current psyche. TANSTAAFL has a surprisingly long history, but the core notion is that if something feels too good to be true, then quite simply, it is. And generally, this isn’t a bad rule to live by in business, as capitalized upon in the catchy title of Andy Grove’s 1996 book “Only the Paranoid Survive.” In HR, the TANSTAAFL lifestyle seems a very prudent approach. Our employee base is litigious and connected. We need to “craft” our policies carefully to anticipate policy lunch payments, “design” our training programs, gain front end “buy-in” from steering committees and user communities. We are Grandmasters of the HR Chess Game and must anticipate and minimize negative consequences.

Or do we have it at least partially wrong? At two recent Talent Management Conferences in New York and San Diego, I was fortunate to meet Julie Clow, from Google’s Learning and Development area. Obviously enjoying pushing the envelope in extremely provocative ways, Julie ostensibly talked about social networking, however the implications were far broader. Social networking tools and learning designs could be “scrappy,” living organisms composed of disparate pieces and parts. Interventions might decidedly be not final, pretty, or “crafted”.  Unleash the wisdom of the crowd early and often and just perhaps a free lunch might result! And frankly, even if there are occasional negative reactions to less finely honed communications along the way, they are likely to be informative and of minimal cost. But perhaps people might simply get energized, teach each other, and develop their own passionate communities of expertise. Perhaps they might even exceed our wildest expectations if only we had the courage to get our big fat controlling egos (my words not Julie’s) out of the way.

Julie referred me to the first book of Wired magazine’s editor-in-chief Chris Anderson, The Long Tail, which challenged archaic assumptions about the marketplace in our digital age. The essence of the “Long Tail” notion is that historically we have focused on the “head” of a curve for marketing and distribution purposes (i.e., the highly engineered or researched hit or the best seller) – in our field that highly “crafted” rollout or “designed and finished” training program. But of at least equal importance today is the “tail” of the curve (i.e., that boundless reach into much lower quantities of sales or users with eclectic needs which, when taken in aggregate, represent a huge opportunity for product, messaging, or involvement). So how do we start tapping into our “long tail” employee base? What if we:

• Adopted an “open-source” software model of training and development? Much like anyone might write an application for an iPhone, what if we created better tools for associates to build programs and knowledge bases reflective of their interests?
• Viewed ourselves less as sources of information but, like Google, informative filters of information, going beyond mere key word searches to dynamic results based the eclectic interests of our diverse constituency?

If you’re at all like me, you have more than a little hesitancy to delve into these waters for all kinds of conventional and obvious reasons. Yet, as Anderson points out, in a world where inventory is digital and the ability to tap into passion is boundless, there is a very real possibility of enjoying many free lunches. What risks are we taking to enjoy them?

Barry Stern is vice president, Consulting Services and Delivery for Development Dimensions International (DDI). Follow him on Twitter.

Comments

[Barry Stern]

Hi Joanne – Thanks for weighing in. You have conquered some of your initial fears about this art and derived the rewards. My hope is that more of us in the world of glass and steel can do that both as individuals and on behalf of their companies.

[Joanne Tombrakos]

Since leaving Corporate America almost two years ago, I have learned the art of social networking. There is a fear when you put your thoughts, feelings, ideas and yes pictures into cyberspace.
But the payoff is many free lunches. I am starting to lose count of the new friends and contacts I have made via Twitter.

I am not sure I would have so embraced this new culture had I still been encased in a world of glass and steel. But now on the outside, my suggestion is to embrace it and figure out how to use it to your advantage. There is much to be gained.