A new ally in the war

In our little war against bad management, we need all the help we can get. I have found a very interesting fellow who’s been on this crusade for a long time already, and he’s got a pretty cool podcast as the key weapon in his arsenal. Wayne Turmel is our new ally.

Wayne is a Canadian born Manager working in the US who puts out a very plucky podcast that is hosted by an Australian podcast site and is enjoyed by a truly global audience. If you manage people or are interested in learning how to do it, and have a good time doing it, I highly recommend The Cranky Middle Manager Show.

I was recently a guest on Wayne’s show. The topic of our discussion was how real people are dealing with the talent challenge – that scary demographic and business trend that indicates that there are going to be fewer great people to fill those roles critical for your company to thrive. During my interview with Wayne we talked about some of the things that my company and others are doing (or planning) to help figure out the correct, balance between bringing in external talent to ensure a good flow of new and innovative ideas, and investing in the development of your existing staff to ensure you’ve got the best team to help you compete.

Now I’ll grant you that this topic and the information I run through in the interview seem more like a big strategic battle plan than the Guerilla tactics we normally subscribe to, but the methods discussed here are just scalable enough to let you start doing them as tactical parts of your job every day and they will achieve the same tactical wins you want. The bonus is that these tactical wins are building blocks for a bigger strategy.