Consider…
If you are reading this you are likely to have achieved
Potential actualised,
(At least to this point…)
But consider if you were not born where you were born.
If you did not have security, love, encouragement and belief in you
Easy access to credit and opportunities taken as a right….
Where would you be?
What would you be doing?
Who would help you?
“Found” is a project to reach out to those who are poor, disadvantaged and maybe at risk
But are high potential individuals who with development and empowerment could reach out and help others
Maybe someone like you might have been?
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Update May 2010 -
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia have joined as a partner for the pilot project of "Found"
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Here is our latest update which I sent out in late April 2010 to Friends, Colleagues and Subscribers
Time crawls for my teenage daughter – it takes years and years to get from thirteen to fourteen while for most of us time becomes ever more fleeting with each passing year….Well, time is doing that thing with “Found” and I thought it may be time for a brief Update and a Synopsis of the project..
“Found” arose from a Working Journey analysis I did with Prof Muhammad Yunus and is a spinoff from a plan to introduce Dr Elliott Jaques human capability concepts to successful micro entrepreneurs in developing regions with cognitive potential to perform at higher levels of work.
The idea is to identify young high potential individuals (which we do accurately and predictively ) and offer them rapid business development to grow their own small business; work in public and private partnerships (such as in Prof Yunus’s social businesses industry ) or take up management traineeships within corporate employ. I plan to go to Bangladesh later this year and am very excited about this opportunity.
High Potential is a sought after commodity and such people power change, growth and renewal. If we can identify and provide rapid development to people who can make a difference to others, we can potentially leverage people from poverty by deploying our human capital more effectively and in less time. We can make disadvantaged high potentials effective
“Found” is an Australian pilot project to identify 20 “at risk or potentially at risk” candidates from a pool of some 200 candidates. I don’t know if we will find these high potentials in a developed first world country so a question mark hangs over whether such a talent pool exists. A key selection criteria is being comfortable processing information “cumulatively” (=Work Level IIS). Other criteria are between 18-25 years of age, out of school for one or two years. not studying, not employed full time, live in Melbourne and able to travel to (our partner) Diamond Valley Learning Centre (DVLC). DVLC will provide infrastructure and learning support to the candidates.
If successful and the first phase of the project works effectively, we will look for government and corporate support to start a second project, particularly the assessment phase, which I am personally sponsoring.
Ok, so finally the update...
• A low key public appearance of “Found” at a career expo (more of a trade fair) was not very encouraging as none of our target market was present.
• This made us determined to create a network that would identify possible candidates for us. As a result Kate Schanknecht (Manager DVLC) and I met with Alex Todorovski who has agreed that Sarino Russo will assist us identify potential candidates for assessment. Alex was very supportive with lots of good ideas - Thanks Alex.
• Estelle Olstein, Diversity Manager at Woolworths Corporate will also be activating her network to search for potential candidates. Woolworths HR Director Kim Schmidt has been very encouraging and has offered to take onboard our candidates as management trainees. Thanks Estelle and Kim.
• Kate will be meeting with Melbourne City Mission. MCM started the “Slingshot” programme to assist young budding entrepreneurs who could not get onto the NEIS Government programme.
• Ann Sherry. CEO of Carnival Lines and a “Found” supporter introduced me to Nicole Endicott, CEO of Activate Australia. Nicole and I will continue discussions on cooperation.
• We are staring to work on a customised pre employment learning programme at DVLD and Graham Tootel, will be putting the programme together. We plan on preparing our “Found” candidates prior to introducing them to corporate. This will include networking evenings with mentors and role models. DVLC will offer customised courses to give them an understanding of how business work (small business management, computer skills, business book keeping, assertiveness & communication skills, anger management {one of the toxins of underutilisation and powerless is anger}), with electives in HR, Retail and Medical and I will offer a Requisite Front Line Manager’s introduction.
• In order to build resilience Verena MacLean from The Working Journey is in South Africa training as a facilitator in the programme “Dependable Strengths” , a programme aimed at instilling confidence and job attractiveness for youth at risk (South Africa has an unemployment figure set conservatively at 23% in 2007). This programme has been used very effectively in helping youngsters move towards living a productive and socially responsible life and in getting work. We will offer this programme broadly within Australia.
• Thanks to Complexity Metrics allowing us to use their method for identifying potential and also to BIOSS International for support. Both methods are solidly grounded in the work of Dr Jaques.
• I am having discussions with two new financials services sector organisations about taking on between 1 -5 of our candidates into their front line management development programmes. I will broaden these discussions once we know we have a talent pool to work with. Our programme will deliver potential, as astute organisations realise.
So, how can you help?
We are not looking for financial assistance now, but welcome discussions with Organisations who would be willing to employ one or two of our candidates in a management development programme and who have the will to give them the support to succeed. High potential individuals don’t need much, but they do need solid bedrock.
Also, if you are in an Organisation that has contact with young adults and feel you can nominate some names that would be great. This email has been addressed directly to stakeholders and to people within my network. Please feel free to forward it to others who may be interested. Many thanks for reading and please contact me if you wish to be involved, either in the Australian or in Bangladesh
Andrew Olivier
+61 (0)438 406 261 *
Andrew@theworkingjourney.com & www.workcomplexity.com
Resources
Diamond Valley Learning Centre “Found” –
Dependable Strengths – the head office is in Washington and there is also a South African operaton.
Slingshot – Melbourne City Mission and Dusseldorp Skills Foundation
Activate Australia -
The Working Journey of Muhammad Yunus – (you will need to join Global Organisation, but it is free and offers lots of resources on Elliott Jaques
The Yunus Centre and Social Business – this site gives examples of work in progress.
