The Triangle Organization Development Network (TODN) is an organization development community providing opportunities for personal and professional learning, development, and support for members and associates in the Raleigh – Durham – Chapel Hill area of North Carolina.

The conference was an excellent combination of short fast-paced “Ted Talk-like” presentations and interactive group exercises and discussions. And the TODN added an innovative twist to the conference by employing graphic recorder Caryn Sterling of Drawing Insight to graphically record the presentations and discussion in the four trending areas. Be looking for a future blog soon about this innovative process.

Here is a brief summary of the four global human capital trends that were presented:

1. Trends in Leadership from Rick Miller, Miller Training and Development. He shared a model illustrating that leaders operate out of three different orientations: Professional – a focus on meeting certain standards, bureaucratic – adhering to organizational rules and norms, and political – more focused on the relationships between people. It is critical for effective leaders to understand their own leadership orientation leanings compared to the organization they are working within.

2. Reinventing Performance Management from Ann Jones and Julia Curtis of Quintiles. Ann and Julia reviewed the evolution of performance management using their work at Quintiles (a major Pharmaceutical firm) as a case example. Over the past several years, performance management has continued to evolve from an annual one-sided process of a manager rating an employee to more of an ongoing interactive discussion that benefits both the company and the employee. Discussions are at least quarterly, and the short more frequent conversations include beneficial feedback and goal resetting if necessary. This ongoing discussion eliminates surprises from the annual review, helping to remove fear and contention from the process.

3. Workforce on Demand from Keith Langbo, Founder and CEO of Kelaca. Keith discussed the growing trend of the “contingent workforce” which often includes contractors hired for short term needs, for a single project, or even as a trial before becoming a “full time regular employee.” He estimates that the contingent workforce is now 34% of total workers, and may grow to 50% by 2020. But the hiring of the contingent worker has to be purposeful with a focus on making sure there is a good cultural fit so that business results and employee satisfaction can be maximized.

4. Employee Engagement from Bucky Fairfax of RTI. Like the second discussion above, Bucky provided a corporate perspective on this topic based up work he is leading at RTI International, a leading scientific research firm. He defined employee engagement as the emotional commitment that an employee has to an organization and its goals. And in a recent Deloitte study, culture and engagement is the current top concern of Human Resource leaders. Bucky shared that RTI is now underway in a major work effort focusing on employee engagement that includes growing skills and competencies, enhancing diversity and inclusion, performing meaningful employee surveying and providing opportunity for professional growth.

Of course in this short blog I can only scratch the surface of a full day of material. Those locally in the Raleigh – Durham – Chapel Hill, NC area should consider becoming involved with TODN to learn more about these and other topics in the Organization Development sphere.