One Page Talent Management: Eliminating Complexity, Adding Value Hardcover – May 18, 2010

I am a Talent Management consultant with ten years experience with competency models/assessment tools/assessment centers/training. Among all the books I read, I find this book the most practical and thought provoking in the same time. Inspired by the book, I have redesigned our engagement survey, and I am redesigning our 360 tool according to the principles recommended by Effron and Ort. I always believed in manager friendly solutions, and the book gave excellent ideas how to improve my tools. Great ideas also around implementation and driving accountability. I also highly appreciate the concise style and the clear stand of the authors on many controversial issues. I highly recommend the book for consultants, HR/OD professionals, and high level managers who really care about talent. I believe reading the book will inspire many to change things around their talent management practices. My only warning would be not COPY/PASTE every specific suggestion as it is recommended, even though it is based on research, because some may not be suitable in all companies. For example, the authors recommend the manager should set the target for the employee instead of participatory goal setting. That works in general, but only if the manager truly understands the context of the employee's work, which is not always the case, e.g. in virtual teams, cross-border operations, complex technical work, etc. Or if you start from scratch, and your managers' soft skills are low, implement the practices one-by-one, not at once. So use the principles with judgement - but do use them! All in all, a truly remarkable book that has the potential to "change the world" of talent management in many companies.

When an HR coleague told me to read chapter 4 Talent Reviews and Succession Planning, I immediately ordered two copies of the bok for my office. When I read chapter 3 on 360-degree Feedback I thought this is without a doubt the best HR book I've read in many years: clear, no-nonsense, including an overview of and grounded on a broad suevey of available research, based on a principle which has taken me many years of HR praxis to fully appreciate. That HR stuff is too often over-engineered. That the "sweet spot" of keeping tools and processes as simple as possible with only as much detail as needed is what largely distinguishes tools which will be understood and implimented by line leaders and thus deliver value to the business.The chapter on 360s is a top Must-Read for any HR professional! If more companies would follow this pragmatic approach, millions would be saved (and many big HR comsulting companies would lose a major revenue stream), manager development would be truely served and 360s wouldn't have the deserved bad reputation they do with business leaders.The other chapters are also very good. Just don't expect ALL the answers here. There's no substitution for digging in any investing the time to applying the solid principles discussed here to your specific business context.

Good read rehashed concepts from a different perspective.

This book is wonderful. It nailed each topic clearly and concisely, prompting value-added thoughts about how to implement talent management. The only disappointment (hence 4 stars instead of 5) was the chapter on Engagement. That chapter is overly complex, does not provide examples of an engagement survey, and tells HR to use a statistician to figure it all out. Not very helpful. However, the other chapters are fantastic. Overall, I highly recommend it.

I had the pleasure of attending a presentation by Marc Effron and was immediately inspired to buy One Page Talent Management. The book is a real gem. It provides a clear and concise approach to 360 assessments that helps businesses focus on what matters `now.' It relies on the very best science to provide insight on how people view critical information, how they respond to change and how they are motivated to perform on the job. LeadersCove LLC has become an Approved Provider for the OPTM360 - it offers exactly what our clients have been requesting - a reliable, straight-forward process that can be successfully implemented within very lean organizations.

Excellent book. Effron and Ort definitely have a point-of-view (to me a good thing) and aren't shy about sharing. They definitely shake up the status quo, which will probably take some talent professionals out of their comfort zone. The authors put a lot of emphasis on (and faith in) academic research. If you have the same level of confidence in academic research as the authors do, then you'll likely agree with many of the premises they advance. If not, you won't.It's not likely that a talent professional would use every approach advanced by the authors, but it is very likely that these same professionals can reap a few gems. Kudos to Effron and Ort.Bill Wiersma, Author--The Power of Professionalism

With all the complexity about talent, this book is a pleasant reprieve! What a wonderful want to show how to actually make talent happen in a simple and straightforward way. This book can be useful for anyone interested in upgrading their talent. The ideas are clear, the tools useful, and the application evident. What a wonderful job.

I like the philosophy and methodology promoted throughout the book. However, there is only some abstract intruction with limited concrete cases, which makes the book more like an intro but hardly a helpful tool book.