ABSTRACT
Talent management is not fit for purpose, the world of work is changing, and the talent war is not yet won. This chapter introduces talent liberation as a new talent metaphor to help organisations to build sustainable competitive advantage across all definitions of talent. Talent liberation is based on five premises which apply a systems approach and are aligned with the Agile HR Manifesto. The five premises are: talent is not as scarce as we think (challenging the ‘mindset of scarcity’); high performance is a result of teams as well as individuals (challenging the ‘cult of individual heroes’); we need to be responsive to changing talent needs (challenging the ‘lack of strategic clarity’); formal processes are only part of the answer (challenging the ‘dominance of formal process’); and success depends on partnership between the organisation and the people (challenging ‘missing half the story’). Evidence and examples for each of these premises is given. The chapter concludes with coaching questions to help the reader to apply what they have read.
