Your team needs resources and know-how to meet the challenges it faces. The advent of new information and communications technologies (NICTs) is revolutionizing all sectors of activity, forcing organizations to rapidly adapt their tools, skills and knowledge. This digital transformation is bringing about abrupt changes (or disruptions), especially in data sharing and, more generally, in the way teams and organizations cooperate. To collaborate more intelligently, we need to keep up with the latest work-related digital trends.

These applications are part of an organization's resources, just like its workforce, equipment or assets. Does your team have the tools it needs to accomplish its mission?

• Provide your team with sufficient resources and know-how. Ask them what they think they need to fulfill their mission (tools, skills, etc.). Try to identify any gaps - ideally, before the group is set up or shortly afterwards. Consider bringing in other people, such as experienced consultants.
• Make time and space for continuous learning, and create a culture that encourages it. Anticipate opportunities to develop your team and treat them as a sound investment. Actively encourage people to master new skills (e.g. through special projects or new assignments), and ensure that this learning spreads throughout the organization.
• Encourage a "scouting mind set" that makes people want to try out new technologies (hardware, digital platforms, etc.). Encourage people to follow the latest trends that can make their lives easier, and see how this can improve their performance.
• Use blended learning to maximize options. Combine working documents, courses, lectures, real-life observation, mentoring, coaching and more. Don't exclude anyone or anything. Face-to-face learning enables direct collaboration, while virtual tools offer greater flexibility and the ability to learn at your own pace. Find the right balance to achieve your goals.
• Encourage people to produce and share specific know-how (and not just consume it). For example, ask them to contribute to the content of a conference or the organization of a round table. The aim is to increase their specialist knowledge and spread the reflex to share resources.

• Assuming 100% capacity. This planning error can undermine your talent and lead to burnout in key positions. No team can dedicate its entire time to a project. If they were to do so, they would most likely feel overburdened, at the risk of missing certain deadlines. As a general rule, it's best to plan with a capacity of 80%, in order to keep a certain margin for meetings, e-mails, or any other parameter reducing the time spent on the project.
• Tolerating lack of agility (and other inefficiencies) in resource allocation. People are naturally reticent about changes in organizational design: they fear the impact on themselves, their habits, even their careers. This resistance is in itself a risk factor. Some teams become locked into obsolete practices or procedures. The versatility of our current environment (VUCA) requires us to be agile in allocating resources, and to adopt emerging technologies as quickly as possible.
• Consider only the skills a person needs for their role or function, rather than seeking to increase their employability. Human beings are inclined to learn, develop and improve. Acquiring transferable skills makes them more resilient, more self-confident when faced with changes in role or function. So don't focus too narrowly on the sectoral objectives of one project or another; remember that learning is inextricably linked to results.
• Reduce the budget allocated to staff development. This would send the wrong signal to teams. Their morale, productivity and performance would soon suffer. Talent development should be seen as a strategic investment - not a cost. In the long term, stinginess in staff development could prove costly: you'd be forced to look for skills outside the organization.
• Make the acquisition of new skills exclusively an individual objective. An organization's performance depends to a large extent on teams who know how to exploit their collective skills and abilities. Introducing individual development plans to nurture talent is obviously not a bad thing. But it is a good idea to consider broader plans to optimize overall performance.