The Magic Multiplier: Darwin Meets the Beatles — A Framework for Identifying and Cultivating Hi-Profile Leaders

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change."

– Charles Darwin, 1859

"...roll up for the mystery tour.
The magical mystery tour is coming to take you away,
Coming to take you away.
The magical mystery tour is dying to take you away,
Dying to take you away, take you today."
– The Beatles, 1967

Did Charlie Darwin have insights that actually pre-figure a solution for the so-called "war for talent," and did the Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour" suggest a framework for understanding how to better identify and prepare your Hi-Pos for succession?

It may be so ...

For many astute business leaders, the "war for talent" has already become a platitude. This doesn't mean that cultivating high-potential future leaders isn't a vital challenge. But the identification and development of Hi-Pos can seem pretty mysterious and a bit thin on "how-to" specifics. Only a few organizations ever figure out who they need to "put on the bus" and send on the "Magical Mystery Hi-Po Development Tour" to ensure they have a group of really ready successors.

Why is this?

Possibly because we all understand that developing Hi-Pos represents an important (and sometimes expensive) investment in an organization's future viability. For many who seek to get Hi-Pos the type of development "tour" that prepares them for more senior roles, the trip often ends in a "Penny Lane" world, where the characters are recognizable but their actions remain random and unpredictable — something like the fireman of the song who "rushes in from the pouring rain, very strange."

When an organization gives someone a ticket on the Hi-Pos Mystery Tour, where are they going? And how does their organization, or even the Hi-Po travelers themselves, know that the right people are taking the tour and that they will actually arrive at a real destination, as opposed to ending up, say, in "Strawberry Fields," where "nothing is real"?

Very often the Hi-Po tour bus driver seems to speak about an itinerary that's in a nether world — using terms like "competencies," "performance," "alignment," "strategic vision" and similar framing phrases that engender interest but provide little in the way of concrete understanding of where you are being taken. In the parlance of the old Beatles' Mystery Tour, it can sound a lot like "You Say Goodbye and I Say Hello." The Hi-Po traveler (and the organization paying for the trip) can wonder whether the bus is coming or going.

More-known concepts like performance metrics sometimes seem a bit more meaningful but can remain very open-ended as well. Are they really the keys to identifying and developing the right people? Our Korn/Ferry team has devised an approach to Hi-Po identification and development that maps a more tangible itinerary and affords greater confidence that the Hi-Po tour takes your leaders to a meaningful destination.

As your tour guides, we help you find your way to "The Magic Multiplier" — a destination that links directly to how Hi-Pos in your organization get identified, groomed and prepared to take on more complex roles in your business. Entities that adopt this approach to Hi-Po identification and development find that the process actually gives them a way for creating that durable future leadership pipeline. After significant research, we know it finally comes down to a straight forward equation:

The components of this equation are like road signs on a tour map. Each connotes a milestone or a stage in the journey that transforms your Hi-Pos into ready successors. The terms in this equation define out like this:

• Raw Material = Applied Intelligence, Savvy and Emotional Stability (EQ/EI)
  These are really the "price of the Hi-Pos Mystery Tour ticket"; they comprise what most people have already.
• Right Experience Opportunities = Variety in jobs
  Hi-Pos get identified initially by their ability to perform when changing jobs and challenges; moving up to in-place assignments; dealing with hardships, people and feedback; participating in workshops, courses and readings to drive competency development in the relevant competencies.
  
  Generally these are the first level of screening to ensure you are choosing the right people to send on the Magical Hi-Pos Bus.
• Learning Agility = Ability and willingness to learn from experience
  Ho-Pos are able to develop new competencies and modify behaviors. In general, their learning agility and overall adaptability separate them from "high performers" or "high professionals."

Of these three, Learning Agility is the Magic Multiplier — the quality that a true Hi-Po evinces where many others (who may also be high-performing or highly professional) may not. Our research shows that Hi-Pos are often high performers, but most high performers may not be Hi-Pos:

So when you begin looking to pick the right people to send on the Hi-Po Mystery Tour, looking at performance or professional capabilities won't put the right people on the bus.

Our research and experience find that what emerges from the process of looking at your Hi-Pos in terms of their Learning Agility comes down to acting on what Charles Darwin actually understood: Survival is not for the "fittest" but for the most adaptable.

You will be able to send the right people on the Magical Hi-Po Bus Tour by looking at how any given possible senior-level successor knows who they are and what they are seeking to do. It means they demonstrate that they have understood the lyrics to the Mystery Tour song "Your Mother Should Know," and they have the learning agility to "get up and dance to a song that was a hit before your mother was born."

Like Darwin suggested, the true Hi-Po possesses the ability to adapt quickly and effectively to both internal and external stimuli. Too many organizations have tended to omit adaptability and learning agility from Hi-Po development, relying too heavily on some of the more traditional meritocracy criteria, such as IQ or educational background, or past performance, or even reputation (as for instance a high-profile college degree). If success were a matter of these factors, the high-potential talent challenge would be solved.

By omitting the "magic" of learning agility from the talent equation, an organization can find it seeking to cultivate Hi-Pos is sort of like "I Am the Walrus": "sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come, corporation tee-shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday. Man, you been a naughty boy, you let your face grow long."

Embracing learning agility as a key factor in identifying and developing Hi-Pos takes much of the mystery out of succession development. When looking for this kind of adaptability, your organization can more readily focus on those high performers who show also that:

• They know themselves well and can readily deal with a variety of people and with difficult situations.
• They like to experiment and can deal with the discomfort of change.
• They deliver results in first-time situations by inspiring teams and having significant presence.
• They are critical thinkers who are comfortable with complexity, examining problems carefully and making fresh connections.

When you begin looking at your organization's Hi-Pos, you can book a Magical Mystery Hi-Po Tour as if it were somehow "easy" — as in "...nothing you can sing that can't be sung. Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game. It's easy."

At the end of the Tour, the "magic" must be found in your ability to see changes in behavior, performance and business metrics. This Hi-Po Mystery Tour follows a proven map that finally gets you the right folks on the journey. Using this approach, you won't end up in "Penny Lane," but you will be able to say that the "Magical Multiplier" has worked and your organization will find itself singing to the the tune of "Baby, You're a Rich Man."

---

Kim Ruyle, Ph.D., is Vice President for Product Development, Korn/Ferry Leadership and Talent Consulting-Lominger. This year, together with colleagues Gabriella Kilby and Greg Janicik, Kim conducted a program on Organization Design: Implication for Global Talent Management for the Conference Board. His research explores what it means to be a high-potential performer. His work explains the meaning of leadership agility and why it is so critical to leadership success. He peels back the onion on vague terms like "high potential" and shares the key characteristics companies need to consider when identifying and developing future leaders.