Bob Sutton, a professor of
Management Science and Engineering at Stanford Engineering School, brought up a
great point in his post: Fight
the War for Talent Right: Bring Aboard Intact Teams and Networks.

“You win the war for
talent by bringing aboard talented sets of people, not talented solo acts.”

This is a very powerful
idea, especially if you combine this concept with the changing nature of working
relationships. 

“Bringing aboard talented
sets of people” doesn’t have to mean hiring them as employees.

Companies don’t have to
own the whole network to benefit from it. In fact, the team may stay more valuable to everyone if it is not
subsumed by the organization. 

By bringing in teams as
needed, the hiring company gets the benefit of that network’s ever expanding
knowledge and connections without the ongoing overhead.

The team is also much more
likely to stay fresh and continue to be a source of new ideas and approaches to
issues as a result of that independence. 

Of course the hiring
organization needs to be one whose systems, processes, and culture are capable
of valuing this type of relationship.

But when change is
constant, the ability to bring in experienced groups of people and set them
loose on a problem or opportunity could be invaluable.

Bob sums it up
nicely: “… as the war for talent seems
to be heating up again, companies that fight it right will spend less time
looking for solo stars and more time looking for dynamic duos, teams, and
networks of people that have worked together in the past and want to work
together more in the future.”