TalentBridge on OpinionOttawa

I have been meaning to write a small TalentBridge piece on OpinionOttawa for some time now. TalentBridge was recognized as a best practise in the “Talent White Paper” and it is really gratifying to see the effort of the last two years being recognized in this manner. One of the comments left for the Talent White Paper caught my eye because it brought up a very imp question – the one of scalability and footprint of impact. The specific question was “how do we scale TalentBridge so that it can impact not 10, not 100 but thousands of individuals. I finally got down to writing my response, in which I also integrated a bit of the TalentBridge philosophy, our direction and our take on the vision that would put Ottawa on the right track for 2015 …. Here is my response …

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It is heartening to see TalentBridge being recognized as a best practise. We are very proud of what we have achieved in the short period of time we have been around, and the results of our investment in our local talent shows in a very healthy community of 18 young and ambitious entrepreneurs who we (confidently) believe would make a huge difference in the Ottawa community in the years to come. True, the scalability of the program and its ability to impact and support a large number of high end young individuals (that we can support through paid internships) can be seen as a limitation and true the program can have a bigger better footprint but we are young program that just started two years ago and we are still looking for some of the answers that can help us challenge these limitations. As attractive as the paid internship component of the program is, we believe that the paid internships (and the training inherent of the internships) are but a small part of the TalentBridge experience. The differentiating power of TalentBridge lies in the program’s mentorship capacity, and the personalized entrepreneurial and skill training that we are continuously building into the program. Plus the once in a life time opportunity of working in close proximity of 5-6 other high octane individuals, whose interest in (and ability to) finding solutions to mind defying problems is what puts the program in a different league. Those aspects of the program, we feel, are fundamentally scalable and can be built out quite aggressively.

Through the program’s unique model, all of the program participants have access to a rich spectrum of one on one mentorship opportunities that incorporate a very personal and social aspect of human interaction. All of our support activities are customized to an individuals needs, and address specific challenges and needs as identified by our participants – often in conjunction with their mentors. As mentioned above, this specific strength/aspect of TalentBridge is infinitely scalable, and can be built and developed further with a minimal investment and without any specific dependence on cyclical funding. Infact, the program with some modifications and some dedicated effort can be built into a sustainable program with its own possible revenue model that will help with the dependence on cyclical funding.  The structure of the program and its inherent nimbleness provide us with infinite possibilities around Talent with one core objective – to identify, engage, develop and retain the best in Ottawa.

TalentBridge for us was (and is) a first step towards engaging and empowering Ottawa’s top youth talent during their formative years while giving them access to opportunities and ideas that would help them truly understand their true potential. In doing so, our focus is on the ability, potential, drive and ambition of our youth leaders. For the right candidate, we are prepared to go any length to help them discover, develop and deliver on their true potential. Ottawa would be on the right path to success if we create more programming to support our talent in their formative years. This does not just require a financial commitment, but a long term strategic investment that recognizes the new rules of a globally flat world. Our Talent situation is no longer just a challenge of “attracting new talent” – what this white paper has missed is the challenge of “keeping our own here”. The world is flat not only from the perspective of “economic flatness” where competition from around the world has come knocking on our doorsteps, but it is also a “talent flatness” where attractive opportunities may cause our best and brightest (representing a significant investment in their training and education) to go knocking on other doors as easily. This calls for a conscious, and strategic investment into programs like TalentBridge and Foundry Program that can provide our young talent with the kind of opportunities, support, encouragement and challenges that will make them call Ottawa their “home”. This we have to do while remembering that the rules of engagement have changed significantly and any such offering has to be developed and delivered with a significant amount of personalization, socialization and customization built into it. Such programming cannot be built to deliver “from a distance” support, but we have to put our own personal stake into it – just as we would into our own private ventures.

True, we have challenges on the end of “scalability” but even as we recognize those challenges we continuously remind ourselves that TalentBridge is still a young program and we have a long way to go. Just as we expect our young talent – who we are continuously challenging – to come up with better and brighter solutions, I am sure that with careful thought and an open mind we will be able to develop a model that can be scaled to benefit and impact a lot more than we are currently helping right now.

For more information on TalentBridge, please visit the program blog at: www.tbridge.ca or please feel free to send Manu Sharma (the curator of TalentBridge) an email at msharma@ocri.ca. We are always looking for insights, thoughts, opinions, best practises, and anything else that can help us build the program and take it to the next higher level.

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This blog entry can also be found on Manu Sharma’s Blog at: http://manusharma.info/talentbridge-on-opinionottawa/