In 2010 I had the opportunity to put a sourcing workshop together for a group of local recruiters.  As I began to formulate a sort of “wire frame” for my presentation, it became obvious to me that I needed to make some decisions about how to adequately cover what I felt were the base components of good, comprehensive sourcing strategy and training.  My audience had a wide range of background and experience – what would tie it all nicely together?

As I reflected on my own background and observations, I realized that I wanted to help the newbies catch hold of a true sourcing philosophy…a “true north” that they could stay focused on.  I wanted to give the senior recruiters a different, upside-down perspective that they had not considered before.  And to the managers, I wanted to convey a bigger sense of aptitudes, collaboration, and far reaching strategy to help them build and develop competent teams.

In the end, my little workshop developed into a 4-hour, 2-part series, and the “binding glue” became a discussion about our view of “Knowledge Capital” and “Information Management.”  In short, I presented this observation to the group:

If you (and more importantly, your senior leadership) do not place a high value on collective knowledge capital and information management practice, then the advanced tools and techniques portion of my training (or any training, for the matter) will have little value for your staffing effort going forward.