Time to say goodbye?

Before then Christchurch busker Hayley Westenra, aged 13, was a household name she opened our fourth annual SmartNet workshops event in 2000 by singing “Time to say goodbye” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6mIQhd0x8g ?

At a time when there was much talk about opportunities for smart Kiwi companies in the brave new millennium, Hayley set the theme for a discussion on the constraint of New Zealand’s developing brain drain.

The consensus of the cross-sector SmartNet participants, comprising policymakers, innovative companies, educators and a range of business and science associations, was that if New Zealand organisations didn’t provide suitably challenging opportunities to engage the hearts and minds of our clever graduates and tap their knowledge and skills, it would be time to say goodbye to a lot of promising young people. They would disappear down the drain for pastures greener, taking with them the investment in human capital they represented.

The SmartNet series of five annual national events from 1997, made possible for us to run by funding from public and private sector partners, started with the year one and two themes of Teamwork and Technology and Knowledge. Innovation. Partnerships. The first five conferences were followed by nine years of regional SmartNet knowledge sharing and networking events, three times a year in the four main centres

Education Leaders Forums

In the interim this we started a cross-the-learning-spectrum annual series of Education Leaders Forums (ELF) in 2007 which has now run for 15 years, the first 13 as in-person events, the last two in the Covid environment via Zoom Meetings because of its functionality and time and cost effectiveness.

“ELF” was a tongue-in-cheek working acronym increasingly appropriate with the contemporaneous success of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies. Elves can hold their breath for a very long time and have a short reproductive cycle, both important attributes for education leaders.

The aim was two fold: to help educators to have a learning pathways perspective, to see how their own work fitted into what happened upstream and down stream of their subsector; and to promote open dialogue with leaders from the world of work who inherited their learners.

For example Virtual ELF21 was entitled Knowledge Ecology in the Covid Era-Ideas, Technology and Trends that are defining future learning and work practices.? https://www.smartnet.co.nz/past-events/

Seismic and the City

Post-earthquakes from 2012 we also ran five annual Seismic and the City events in Christchurch, again acting as catalysts and organisers because no one else was filling the obvious gap.

The aim was to learn from the past and help imagineer the future. This involved bridging the chasms between the government agencies, old and new, responsible for earthquake response and rehabilitation and a range of representatives from local government, business and education and the wider community endeavoring to have their voices heard in terms of earthquake claims and rebuilding issues.

All of this was in the face of a top down recovery blueprint driven from Wellington which shaped the rebuild without adequate engagement and input from the people of the Christchurch. Hence the current herd of white elephants marking time in the city’s living room.

The Great Resignation + The Omicron Big Sick

“…skilled employees have been leaving the workforce or switching jobs in droves.”?Kate Morgan??

Fast forward to the post-Covid environment for the whole country as we come to grips with new ways of working and living. Life is a spiral not a circle: many of the issues and opportunities we and plenty of others have worked on to raise awareness and encourage action over the past 25 years have resurfaced.?

Wheels are being reinvented - and some are in full spin without any evident traction. New initiatives are needed to fit a fast changing environment affected by Covid, climate change and combat.

The future of work is now and it requires a bifocal perspective on the different but complementary needs of employers and employees, particularly those in knowledge intensive industries and enterprises, as well as the needs of those in the growing Gig Economy.

Over the last couple of years New Zealand has had a temporary brain gain because of Kiwi Covid refugees returning home prematurely at a time when OE was off the menu for those who had not yet spread their wings. With the borders now open the boarding call sirens are now sounding.

Knowledge workers of the world, unite!

Talent recruitment, development and retention are again becoming a real challenge at a time when the migration tap turn is tentative. ?Organisations have plenty to lose in terms of millennial brainpower and leadership potential.

For many knowledge professionals lack of support by employers has played a big part in why they’re walking away or contemplating it. Millennials feature prominently in those exiting and sometimes just one resignation leads to a domino effect. Knowledge workers of the world don’t have to unite. They have nothing to lose- and certainly not their brains!

Covid has given employees a great opportunity to re-evaluate their jobs—"How does what I do here make a difference?” “What is my purpose in this chapter of my life?”?“How will it stand me in good stead for the future”, “Am I just marking time?”

Organisations are figuring out how to stop people from leaving. Salary and job flexibility are increasingly important but for some of the most promising young people, mattering matters more.

Covid Era Support for Millennials via Co=Gen

“It’s a fabulous concept.?Millennials as leaders are getting younger and younger …They need all the support they can get.”?Anne Riches,?The Mindfield Navigator, Sydney

Those in leadership roles will appreciate the importance of nurturing tomorrow’s leaders today. This is especially so now we have entered the Omicron+ variant phase of the Covid pandemic and so many are working remotely or isolating.

Earlier this year we launched Co=Gen- a personal and leadership development programme on the Zoom Meetings platform?for millennial knowledge workers?with leadership potential. It helps put them on a personal and leadership growth arc through a spaced diet of food for thought and action and it builds their networks: https://www.smartnet.co.nz/cogen/?.

Supporting, developing and retaining promising people is a key investment for the future for all organisations. Many young people are missing a balanced awareness of their own talents and strengths, as well as understanding their own knowledge and skills gaps. They need a three-dimensional growth strategy, starting with their own personal development, then focusing in turn on team and organisational development.

The key is finding the sweet spot where all three domains overlap.?

BLINKS

More on Co=Gen Module 1:?https://www.smartnet.co.nz/cogen/#module1

A young Hayley Westenra?singing Time to say Goodbye at SmartNet workshops 2000, after MC Jim Hopkins sets the scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ90HZ_TDxI