#CAHR18 Speaker Spotlight: Third Space Thinking with Dr. Ernest J. Wilson III
How will the next 10 years of digital evolution impact the way we hire, train and retain top talent? How will this coming decade change the very definition of HR itself? At the 2018 California HR Conference, we seek to answer these questions and more. Dr. Ernest J. Wilson, III kicks off our Mega Sessions on Monday, August 27th with a discussion about “Third Space Thinking” – a communications based methodology that will help HR professionals and hiring managers bolster their own career development and identify candidates that will succeed in the digitally-disrupted world.
Check out our interview with Dr. Wilson below to get a preview of what his presentation will be about. To see his talk like at #CAHR18, reserve your spot by registering today!
Catch this Mega Session on Monday, August 27th from 11:15am – 12:30pm at the CAHR18 Main Stage.
CAHR: For those unfamiliar with the term, how would you define “Third Space Thinking?”
Dr. Wilson: Third Space Thinking is an innovative, research-based communication-driven approach to help people seize opportunities and solve problems. It is both a unique mindset, as well as a practical toolbox. On the one hand it helps frame issues very differently than engineering and business approaches. At the same time, it offers a set of practical tools for everyday use.
CAHR: In your wealth of experience in the private and public sector, in addition to your research, what are the best ways that you’ve seen to nurture these 5 Key Competencies you’ve identified?
Dr. Wilson: I like the word ‘nurture’. It’s broader than saying ‘teach’ competencies. Everybody possesses varying amounts of these five attributes, just like we all have varying amounts of language or musical competencies. Our aim is to nurture these attributes in ways that best fit the individual and the group. To that extent it’s the same traditional purpose as the field of human resources.
As with learning music, we nurture our ‘students’ through a mix of experiences. We offer traditional classroom teaching and practice. We do a lot of interactive dialogue within groups, nurturing the attributes through scenarios, and through off-site visits to places that provide fun and ‘stretch the muscles’ of the five competencies in different ways. We definitely can all enhance our skills.
CAHR: Which one do you think – if any – is hardest to learn?
Dr. Wilson: I didn’t know the answer to that question five years ago. Now, after five years of teaching Third Space Thinking, I’m convinced that these skills (Adaptability, Cultural Competency, Empathy, Intellectual Curiosity and 360-Degree Thinking are essential and must be learned. (We call them ACE-IT in contrast to STEM). Today, based on our work in multiple settings from the C-Suite to high schools, I believe that empathy and intellectual curiosity are the most innate attributes in most people. You are more likely to be hard wired with those attributes, whereas cultural competency, adaptability and 360-degree thinking are slowly acquired over time as you gain more experience, expertise and social understanding.
CAHR: Can you give us an example of ways these competencies – positively and negatively – impact an organization’s bottom line?
Dr. Wilson: Sure. Experts estimate that it costs roughly $27,000 to onboard a new employee. If the employer lacks the empathy, cultural competence and big picture perspective to recognize high competencies in their candidates, and they hire people who are a bad fit, that figure quickly escalates with new recruitment costs, lost productivity, weakening of long-standing relations with customers, and disruption to the work team. All this adds up to serious business costs that can affect the ROI. By contrast, employers who possesses the requisite Third Space ‘soft skills’ and integrate them well when making important judgement calls, can dramatically improve recruitment and retention. The CEO of Microsoft recently said his company is in the business of creating new markets for products consumers probably don’t know they need yet, so his people must have empathy to operate in that kind of dynamic. A counter example of weak people skills is the fiasco surrounding Uber.
CAHR: The 5 Key Competencies you’ve identified do not discriminate between ages – entry level, middle managers, and senior executives are all lacking in at least one of these five competencies, and no generation typically has each of the 5 competencies.
What do you think is needed to bridge these generational divides and the resulting friction so that the inter-generational workforce can learn from each other’s strengths? How do you envision different generations working together optimally?
Dr. Wilson: First, executives and managers must recognize they need to set their expectations correctly as to who will contribute what in their unit or company. Our evidence found the five attributes wax and wane over a career trajectory. New hires are likely to lack high level ‘big picture’ thinking, but may be stronger in empathy and intellectual curiosity. Our surveys and leadership development programs show that more senior people are likely to have strong 360-degree thinking, but their empathy may have atrophied. We need interventions to get and maintain better balances. An imaginative solution is ‘mutual mentoring’ consciously and deliberately structured as the two demographics work together. Also, cultural competence should be nurtured within each group to move beyond stereotypes to understand others’ life experiences and their expectations.
CAHR: What would you say to recruiters and talent acquisition professionals who are seeking out candidates with these 5 qualities? Do you have any thoughts or tips to identify “360° thinking”?
Dr. Wilson: I spend a lot of time with senior people in our ‘communities of practice’, and they tell me “If you can graduate USC students with those competencies we’ll hire all of them at 9 o’clock Monday morning.” In part because we do teach these skills, every year our students have a 96% employment rate within 12 months of graduation. I believe that communication, public relations and media programs ironically don’t do a good job of pointing out the valuable strengths their graduates have. Our Center for Third Space Thinking has developed a tool kit, check list and assessment tools so employers can hone in on these hugely valuable attributes, and the potential employees know how to explain the value they can bring to a firm.
About 360-degree thinking, there are several useful steps. As a scholar in this area, and as an African American who crosses lots of borders, I have observed that people who have had the ‘benefit’ of being marginalized in some way have developed a set of adaptive chops through their experiences that can give them a wider, more responsive and empathetic behavioral repertoire than people from a more mono-cultural background. Not true 100% of the time, but it’s worth looking for. Also, since no individual is likely to have all five attributes, then building and valuing teams with multiple perspectives on the world, is definitely an advantage.
CAHR: Do you have any surprising/interesting anecdotes (other than the 5 competencies) from your four years of research interviewing 75 global companies?
Dr. Wilson: In one of my early interview sessions, with a half dozen CEOs of some of the nation’s largest public relations firms, one of them looked over his spectacles and asked me “If I should choose to hire one of your graduates, tell me precisely the premium they will bring to my company?” Long pause, and way back in 2013, I didn’t have a good answer. Ouch! It was definitely surprising, embarrassing and eventually provocative in a good way. Last year I invited a group of really smart and diverse Millennials to dinner in West Hollywood to get their take on our hard work on soft skills. Their response was the opposite. “Well Dean, of course these skills are essential. Our generation doesn’t see them as exotic or even controversial. We would just call them survival skills. And people who don’t have them, we wouldn’t want to be around them anyway.”
CAHR: In an article you wrote for Fortune, we noticed that cultural competency is seen by executives as the most critical for middle managers and also the most lacking third-space competency (out of the 5) among them. Why do you think this is, and how can companies tackle this internally?
Dr. Wilson: I will say the amazing explosion of the #metoo and #blacklivesmatter movements, and the seriousness with which the leadership of companies I’ve interviewed in Hollywood and Silicon Valley have responded, means these issues of inclusion, adaptability, cultural competence, empathy, and broad thinking will be with us for years to come.
CAHR: What is your favorite part of working in the Center for Third Space Thinking?
Dr. Wilson: The personal kick is that I get to spend quality time with some of the most interesting and thoughtful people in the world. Second, I believe in my heart that the world will become a better place as more people embrace Third Space Thinking, and it’s a privilege to help that movement.
Dr. Ernest Wilson, III is the Founding Director of the USC Annenberg Center for Third Space Thinking. The Center for Third Space Thinking educates executive leaders and fosters the new generation of leaders, equipping them with skills they need to face the increasingly complex workplace in the digitally disrupted age. Dr. Wilson has worked with the World Bank, United Nations, White House National Security Council, Capitol Hill, as chairperson of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and much more.