There is a slightly curvaceous feel to this week's Three To See with posts on cycles, circles and spheres.

This week I came across Gartner's 2008 Hypecycle for HCM Technologies, 2008 on Jon Ingham's post to his Strategic HCM Blog: Vendorprisey on Social Analytics.  I'm an admirer of the hypecycle format and have previously referenced the Social Software Hypecycle.

I enjoyed Peter Gold's contribution Recruitment 20??: You will sell "product" which appeared on his Social Recruiting Blog.  For a long time I've been intrigued by the candidate "aftermarket" concept and the game theory surrounding it.  On one hand, for some types of role, the aftermarket provides simple advantages to job seekers (quicker and easier access to employment) and to primary recruiting and secondary recruiting organisations (lower costs) but on the other hand, huge complexity, for example:

• Primary recruiting organisation (PRO) - the talent pool trade off.  At which point would a PRO be happy to release an "also ran" to another organisation?  How does it choose its SRO community?  Would the PRO prefer to recommend an "also ran" to its SRO community rather than see that candidate hired by a competitor?
• Secondary recruiting organisation (SRO) - aligning supply.  How closely do the sourcing and screening practices of the PRO align to those of the SRO?  What is the selection/quality gap between the two organisations?  Are there "no approach" agreements between the PRO and SRO if an appointment is made?
• Candidate -  the engagement question.  Could the candidate have the same level of committment/desire for the SRO?  If appointed would the candidate achieve the same level of performance?  Would the candidate be accepted by other employees?  How would the offer to recommend affect the candidates perception of the PRO and SRO?

In the UK University system, "clearing" is an established principle that matches students that failed to secure a place at their first-choice institution because of disappointing grades to vacancies at another.  As an example of the application of the aftermarket concept based on selection criteria, I'd be interested to know what the Assessment community makes of introducing the concept to the workplace.

My third pick: On Twitter and in the Workplace, It's Power to the Connectors by Rosabeth Moss Kanter appeared on the Harvard Business Publishing blog.  This is a great post on the relationship between social capital and power.  In the post Kanter argues that when it comes to getting things done an individual's social networks or "spheres of influence" has more sway than their status within an organisation.

"This changes the nature of career success. It is not enough to be technically adept or even to be interpersonally pleasant. Power goes to the "connectors": those people who actively seek relationships and then serve as bridges between and among groups. Their personal contacts are often as important as their formal assignment. In essence, "She who has the best network wins."

Perhaps not a new concept - the rainmaker, the agent, the broker or fixers like Pulp Fictions' Mr Wolf, have long been features of corporate life but Kanter suggests that every individual can bring their networks to bear in the workplace echoing the sentiments from one of the contributions in my post last week.