Thesis of the book: the business world needs a new employment framework that facilitates mutual trust, mutual investment, and mutual benefit.
Illustrate the fundamental paradox of the tour of duty: acknowledging that the employee might leave is actually the best way to build trust, and thus develop the kind of relationship that convinces great people to stay.
Tours of Duty:
1. Rotational (think: lateral moves)
2. Transformational (think: from lower level to manager)
3. Foundational (think: executive, c-suite)
What do you want to do in five years? and work backward from there.
When serving a tour of duty, find a balance that will serve both parties – employer and employee, called mission alignment.
No person has ever become CEO of General Electric without completing numerous tours of duty throughout the company.
Network Intelligence – Companies have to understand the employee’s broader place in the industry, while the employee should realize that his professional network is one of the key assets that can boost his long-term career prospects. There are more smart people outside your company than inside it.
Think of each employee as an individual scout picking up data from the outside world—from articles, books, and classes, but most important, from other friends inside and outside the industry. It’s what you do with that info that’s important. Ask your employees to expense lunches with interesting people. To gain an edge, you need to use social networks to tap directly into what’s swirling around inside people’s brains.
1. Hire connected people – you learn how to measure network strength systematically and then hire people who have strong networks.
2. Mine intelligence from social media and conversations.
3. Roll out programs and policies that help employees build individual networks – push for policies that allow employees to build their personal brands and establish thought leadership. Setup a networking fund to allow for lunches, coffee, etc to learn from interesting people.
4. Have employees share what they learn with the company.
How to start the network intelligence conversation:
You should kick off the network intelligence conversation by citing a specific challenge you faced at work and how you tapped your network to help you solve it.
ASK EVERY EMPLOYEE TO FURNISH A LIST OF THE SMARTEST PEOPLE HE KNOWS WHO DO NOT WORK AT THE COMPANY.
Corporate Alumni Networks
Alumni are brand ambassadors
Boomerang talent for another tour of duty
