From Lateral Moves to Lateral Thinking (3/4)

As Charles Handy notes:

"The idea that people should move around as much and as fast as possible in order to get more exposure and more experience ... can mean that there is no time to learn to trust anyone and, in the end, no point, because the organization starts to replace trust with systems of control." (HBR - May/June 1995)

Where movement is particularly rapid, those involved may never experience the longer-term effects of their decisions. Besides destroying the trust of those left behind, the learning gained by the person being moved will also be deficient - perhaps critically so.

To achieve a better customer focus and to break down barriers between functions, we need to respect other people's contributions wherever they sit in the organisation and whether we ordinarily interact with them or not. Exceptional performance and effective team play - in whatever context - are the result of people excelling at their own strengths, valuing and building upon the strengths of others, and aligning and magnifying these collective contributions through the pursuit of shared values and common goals. The willing and open networking of knowledge, ideas and resources depends ultimately upon this collaborative mindset, not upon a series of job moves that may, in all other respects, maintain the status quo.

As regards employability, most companies want to recruit people who will excel in key elements of their business, not those who happen to have collected a full set of their previous company's business cards. Maximum self-security, like maximum on-job contribution, comes from people understanding, developing and exploiting their unique talents in ways that add real value.