BusinessWeek Magazine featured in it's March 23/30 issue a special report titled "Game-Changing Management Ideas". Under the topics of business landscape, growth, talent and partner management, the issue contained multiple short pieces about some transforming ideas in management today.
Under the talent management area, two particularly interesting articles were about IBM and it's approach towards developing people.
"The World is IBM's Classroom" is a piece that details Big Blue's program which relocates top management prospects to far-flung areas of the world to work in IBM teams on local humanitarian projects. The communities they work in benefit from the output of the projects and the team members benefit from the collaborative experience and good deed done.
Immediately following this article was a short piece titled "IBM Reinvents Mentoring, Via the Web" about a new corporate program where employees can post profiles and easily search and connect either as a mentor or someone seeking guidance to an appropriate match.
Both programs offer an interesting approach that seems to make sense.