Developing the next generation of talent

Posted byThierry_GPosted inleadership

Great to attend Esri’s annual conference in London today to reconnect with the UK geospatial community — 2500 people! Some key takeaways:

  1. The increasing diversity of the geospatial community is really noticeable and represents a massive change from 20, 10 or even 5 years ago. Fantastic to see.
  2. Artificial intelligence: Many people see AI as an unstoppable force of nature rather than something they can control. So it was nice to see AI use cases that help people simplify tedious tasks. Still, for me the question remains: What do we want AI for and why? I suspect the answer lies, as always, in defining the problem not the solution. We don’t have to make everything AI just because.
  3. The sheer number and range of GIS applications making the world a better place is truly astounding. I can’t think of any other sector or technology that addresses so many societal challenges concurrently. That’s something that the geospatial community should be proud of.
  4. However, making a real difference is about more than deploying tools, data and workflows. Many deployments do not achieve their full potential because of complex human factors — from (not) meeting people’s true needs to bringing them along on the journey, from self-care to development of leaders. Today’s hallway conversations confirmed to me that the new generation of geospatial talent is somehow expected to get on with the job without much leadership training, coaching or support.

This last point really needs addressing.

As people move through their careers, how are they going to succeed at being GIS team members, managers, leaders, collaborators or influencers? How are they going to orchestrate and implement geospatial solutions in a complex world?

The geospatial sector is not alone in this. The Financial Times recently quoted the shocking statistic that 80% of new managers in the UK don’t receive any training in their roles.

Here’s another way to think about it. If your competitors aren’t coaching or training their people in essential human skills, an easy way to get competitive advantage is simply to do some of that.

And if it makes the world a better place, even better!

Let’s talk.