New Book from Harvard Business Review Press
Open Talent: Leveraging the Global Workforce to Solve Your Biggest Challenges
In This Book You Will:
- Unlock the Power of Digital Talent Transformation: Dive into the dynamic world of digital talent acquisition and see how technology has revolutionized traditional hiring and HR practices.
- Embark on a Journey Through Talent Evolution: Explore the historical backdrop of the open talent revolution. Gain valuable insights into the key factors and trends that have sculpted today's ever-changing workforce landscape.
- Master the Art of Cultivating Open Talent Culture: Discover the pivotal role of company culture in attracting and retaining open talent. Learn expert strategies to craft a culture that sparks collaboration and innovation with external contributors.
- Architect Your Center of Excellence: Uncover the blueprint for establishing a Center of Excellence (CoE) dedicated to managing open talent. Ensure a well-structured and efficient approach to talent acquisition and management.
- Assess, Learn, and Experiment: Grasp the importance of continuous assessment and experimentation to optimize the utilization of open talent. Acquire methods to perpetually enhance talent acquisition and utilization.
- Forge Your External Talent Cloud: Gain exclusive insights into creating and nurturing a dynamic network of external talent. Cultivate relationships with freelancers, contractors, and gig workers to tap into specialized skills.
- Innovate with Open Talent: Immerse yourself in strategies and practices to harness open talent for innovation. Leverage diverse expertise and external perspectives to fuel creativity within your organization.
- Launch Your Internal Talent Marketplace: Learn to create an internal marketplace that seamlessly connects in-house talent with external contributors. Foster collaboration and resource-sharing within your organization.
- Master the Art of Scaling a Networked Organization: Grasp the essentials of expanding the networked organization model. Ensure scalability and adaptability to meet the ever-growing demands of your business.
- Supercharge Open Talent Adoption: Unearth powerful methods to accelerate the adoption of open talent practices within your organization. Empower your company to respond swiftly to evolving business needs and market dynamics.
In the new world of work, one thing is clear: the war for talent is over—and talent won.
As the pandemic waned, we returned to sparsely populated offices and empty conference rooms. Our working life had been transformed, seemingly overnight. But the truth is that the ever-growing digital wave has long been breaking down organizational boundaries and increasing open innovation, including the use of crowdsourcing platforms as a talent solution. Now the imperative is clear: adapt to and leverage this new, digitally enabled world of "open talent"—or get left behind.
In this eye-opening, essential guidebook for the new world of work, John Winsor and Jin Paik, leaders at the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard, show how the massive reset of the pandemic allowed talented workers everywhere to exit their jobs without leaving the workforce. Now some are freelancing for multiple companies or starting small businesses, leaving hiring managers scratching their heads over a workforce gone AWOL. What's more, talent has more power than ever using platforms such as Freelancer.com, Fiverr, and Upwork, setting their terms for work: what, where, when, and at what price.
How can companies adapt? The key, the authors argue, is shifting to a more "distributed" idea of the organization that revolves around talent (people) and projects, not divisions and offices. In this new model, which the authors call a networked organization, talent is culled from both inside and outside the organization, dispensing with siloed approaches to talent acquisition and instead viewing talent through a single lens: as a global ecosystem that can be tapped as needed.
With rich stories, keen insights, and an abundance of practical advice, Winsor and Paik provide a new framework and operating model for transforming your organization into a talent-orchestrating, problem-solving machine.
Praise for Open Talent
“By harnessing global talent, organizations can access diverse perspectives, expertise, and creativity at an unprecedented scale. This book serves as an indispensable resource for leaders navigating this new frontier as AI and other disruptive technologies continue to redefine work.”
“When it comes to open talent, Winsor and Paik have lived the concepts, tested the pilots, and ultimately created the model for how organizations succeed. Their research and firsthand experience give you a front-row seat to the lessons learned while also providing you with an actionable framework to bring to your own organization.”
“Open Talent is a guidebook to the future of work and a must-read for CEOs, entrepreneurs, and managers seeking to navigate this new world.”
“This book is an urgent and timely read that provides the groundbreaking road map for the open talent revolution.”
“The future of work is here, and Open Talent provides a practical and cogent manual for succeeding in it. CEOs and other leaders who ignore the trends and truths Winsor and Paik convincingly lay out do so at their peril.”
“Conceptually, every business leader understands the need to integrate additional workforce engagement models into their business strategy – the “why” and the “what” is easy; what they are hungry for is the “how”. What John Winsor and Jin Paik have done is spent time understanding both the successes and the failures that both organizations and platforms have experienced, and distilled that into a roadmap. This is a must-read, practical guide for how to integrate open talent strategies into your organization, bring them to scale, and eventually transform the way you utilize talent to execute your business strategy.”
About John Winsor
John Winsor is a globally recognized thought leader, strategic marketing and product innovation thinker, especially known for his work in marketing, open talent, collaboration, co-creation, and crowdsourcing. His ideas, expressed through his writing, speaking, and the companies he's built, have situated him at the intersection of innovation, disruption, and storytelling.
Winsor is the founder and chairman of Open Assembly, a company providing the world's first digital aggregation platform to reduce friction in adopting open talent and freelancing. As the executive-in-residence at Harvard Business School's Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard (LISH), he plays a crucial role in fostering innovation. He has co-authored several respected books, including Baked In: The Power of Aligning Marketing and Product Innovation, Spark: Be more Innovative through Co-Creation, and Beyond the Brand: Why Engaging the Right Customers is Essential to Winning in Business.
John is currently collaborating with Karim Lakhani and Jin Paik, the founders of LISH, on his sixth book: Open Talent: Leveraging a Global Workforce to Solve Your Biggest Challenges. The book is set for publication by Harvard Business Press in fall 2023. He also founded a global industry coalition, the Open Assembly Community, comprising 4000 leaders aiming to revolutionize the workplace for a billion people by 2025.
Before venturing into the open talent space, Winsor was the CEO of Victors & Spoils, the world's first creative (ad) agency built on crowdsourcing principles, which garnered significant international media attention. He also served as VP/Executive Director of Strategy and Innovation at Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, helping it become the most awarded advertising agency globally. His entrepreneurial journey includes founding Radar Communications in 1998, with Nike as its first client, which he later sold to CP+B.
Before Radar, Winsor built a magazine publishing company focusing on sports such as mountain biking, in-line skating, and extreme skiing. In 1990, he acquired the rights to a struggling magazine, Women's Sports & Fitness, and within three years, he turned it around, launching several other highly profitable titles and events, including The Gravity Games, selling the business to Conde Nast in 1998.
A respected author and regular speaker at marketing and business conferences, Winsor also maintains a well-known blog, where he continues to share his innovative thoughts and ideas.
When John is not pursuing innovative ideas and frameworks in the business world he’s surfing, climbing or riding his bike somewhere in the world.
John Winsor is an entrepreneur, thought-leader and global authority on the future of work, open talent and remote work. John’s ideas, expressed through his writing, speaking, and the companies he’s built, have placed him at the intersection of innovation, disruption and storytelling.