Talent deployment is the process of identifying, moving, and using individuals' skills and expertise to maximise value. Whenever you move someone from one position to another, you have to ask whether the move will increase or decrease their value. To answer that question accurately, you need to understand the fit between the person and their future context.
Business leaders typically ask HR a set of 'who' questions: Who is ready to be promoted? Who should we move to solve that business challenge? Who is ready to take over running the business unit? All of these questions aim to predict how successful someone will be if their work context changes.
The coin-flip problem
The research reveals that you have roughly the same odds of success when promoting someone as flipping a coin. The good news is that structured talent deployment strategies can significantly stack the odds in your favour.
Why context changes everything
The saying that 'your best salesperson can become your worst sales manager' is a common experience in many businesses. Moving people from a context where their talent has high value to a context where their talent has low value makes no sense - yet it happens repeatedly. Why? Because past success is mistakenly seen as a predictor of future performance.
When someone is placed in a new job, it takes time for them to understand the challenges, learn new skills, and build relationships. The better the fit between the talent of the person and the requirements of the new context, the better they will perform. Determining fit and accelerating fit is one of the most valuable things HR can do.
The 6Q Framework
A great model for determining ability fit when making promotion and deployment decisions is the 6Q framework, developed by Bob Eichinger and Mike Lombardo. It is multi-dimensional, applying several different measures to assess fit - which significantly increases your odds of getting it right.
The six dimensions of fit
Intellectual Quotient (IQ): The ability to connect the dots and learn at the level required by the new role. If someone is struggling at their current level, they are unlikely to cope at a higher or more complex one.
Technical Quotient (TQ): Technical and functional skills. The easiest to assess, but often the only dimension used. The higher up the corporate ladder, the less important TQ becomes relative to other dimensions.
Experience Quotient (XQ): The relevance of someone's experience to the challenges they will face. Nobody gets it right the first time - relevant experience means fewer situations will be entirely new.
Motivation Quotient (MQ): The level of energy the person has for the new context. Are they energised by the challenges, the people, and the work they will be doing?
People Quotient (PQ): The ability to manage relationships with others and a strong level of self-awareness. What worked with a previous team may not work with a new one.
Learning Quotient (LQ): The speed with which someone can learn something new, including the ability to let go of previous mental models and adopt a beginner's mindset.
Ecosystem fit: the factor most companies miss
The 6Q framework is a great way to determine ability fit, but there is another dimension that may be even more important: ecosystem fit. This is the fit between a person and the purpose and people of the organisation they are moving into.
No matter how strong someone's ability fit is, if they are not a good fit with the purpose and people of the ecosystem, they should not be considered for the position. Purpose and people fit is the single most important factor to consider when promoting and deploying someone.
Assessing ecosystem fit
**Connection with purpose** Ask whether the individual genuinely believes the work they do is meaningful. Whether they are interested in what the organisation does. Whether they believe in its purpose. A person who is not connected to the purpose of the ecosystem will not sustain high performance over time.
**Connection with people** Ask whether the individual shows genuine interest in others, actively builds relationships, and is valued by their colleagues. If the answer to any of these questions is 'no', the move carries significant risk - regardless of technical ability.
Building the capability to answer 'who' questions
To answer the critical who questions faster and more accurately than business leaders can themselves, you need four things: quality data on your people, efficient processes for connecting people with opportunities, a culture that values development and internal mobility, and technology that makes the data accessible and actionable.
Talent deployment is critical for building the agility you need to respond to talent demand. Having the right people in the right place at the right time is the ultimate purpose of talent management as a practice.