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Repeating from Part 1: Management evolution has overdone it in some species and is now weak, even in survival mode in others. Here is a list of 12 Protected Species (six in Part one, six in part two) that you need to care in extreme, to he point of finding these people and hiring them. Note that the order above in the title is correct. I did not start with ‘having a headcount to fill’. You have to hape permanent openings for them.

7. Riders of the network. Organizations are networks. Networks need riders. The organization chart is lying. It shows boxes with inhabitants. It’s an enclosure, like the old medieval city with its walls. It’s a network. You need the riders. Net-work is more important than team-work. Don’t look for more team players, you may have overbooking. Look for riders of the informal networks of the organization, and behind its borders.

8. Chaordic Acrobats. These are unusual species, a branch of Homo Corporate, that can navigate well both in chaos and order. Acrobats is the right term for new managers. There is not such a thing as one day is chaos and the other is order. It is both in the same afternoon. PhDs in Acrobatics welcome.

9. Disruptors. Ok, there are a few hundred definitions. You need people who can challenge the stability of the system so that alternative worlds (ideas, outcomes, scenarios) can be at least visualized. Be careful to distinguish the disruptor from the arsonist, the psychopath or the CAAs, Chronically Against Anything.

10. Butterfly managers. The ones who seed ideas, nudge behaviours and look at the medium and long term effect. The ones who believe that the flight of the butterfly can create a tsunami. Versus the tsunami lovers for the sake of here and now, all done and nobody feeling well.

11. Conquistadores. This tribe needs the Hispanic name to give it due credit. Conquerors is a weaker term. You need people who can explore terra incognita and who can open new territories of ideas, markers, concepts, and brands.

12. Talki-Walkers. The ‘walk the talk’ is over-rated. It implies that you talk first and then you walk. Probably you have already a fair amount of these people, since the term is almost pre-historical. You now need the ones who walk first and then stop, to talk to you about what has happened, where they went and with whom, and, by the way, would you like to come next time?

(Original full version in New Leaders wanted, now hiring, Leandro Herrero, meetingminds 2007)

 

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