At Taleo World 2009 and at a seminar in Chicago, a Taleo customer presented their story of practice and Taleo technology implementation driving “Success with Succession.” Beyond the benefits of our next-generation user interface, focus on users and managers, tight integration, and self-service configuration, there was an underlying revelation.

The increased visibility that technology brought to their process meant managers could see each other’s people and a company-wide succession pool. That visibility created the need for—and in itself drove—change management. Because the walls of department silos were made transparent. Which in turn broke down each manager’s silo mindset. It made them start thinking of the company as a unified talent pool, not a collection of city states. One talent pool. One company.

This is an example of extended visibility enabling extended thinking. No department is an island. In terms of succession and internal mobility, that visibility creates free talent trade across department borders. You offer people opportunity or risk losing top people to another company. In return, people exhibit stronger engagement with transparent career paths and internal opportunities.

What’s the overall benefit? People work better in glass silos. You get a more holistic approach to talent because you have data, process, and visibility aligned in a unified manner—driven by technology. Got unified data? Get a united company.