Waking up Sleeping Talent
Have you ever seen that Lady Gaga clip? You know, the one where she goes, “No sleep, bus, club, another club, another club…” It’s iconic. And honestly, that’s what the workplace feels like right now, except the remix is far less glamorous: “Layoff, another layoff, hiring freeze, reorg, ghosting, fear, uncertainty…”
That’s the current energy. Exhausting, relentless,and quickly starting to feel a lot like Groundhog’s Day.
It seems like we’ve spent a lot of time talking about what this market means for people looking for work, but far less time talking about what it means for the people who are left to hold down the fort.
The hot take? We’re putting our people on sleep mode. Not necessarily on purpose. It’s more of a side effect when budgets tighten, teams shrink, expectations rise, roles shift under the influence of AI, and burnout runs rampant. Another added layer is that we now have more generations in the workforce than ever, yet we’re letting decades of institutional knowledge walk out the door. Sometimes, in a single reorg, an entire function or team’s memory disappears.
So, how do we keep moving forward in an environment defined by constraint? How do we challenge people while still protecting their capacity? How do we keep morale from plummeting without personal sacrifice?
In other words, how do you do more with less without burning people out?
You take them off sleep mode for starters. And you activate the talent that you already have.
You can’t innovate when everyone is waiting for the other shoe to drop. You can’t innovate when people aren’t sure if their role will exist in six months. And you definitely can’t innovate when the only people invited to solve problems are the ones with a fancy title. Most teams aren’t lacking talent. People haven’t forgotten how to solve problems. They haven’t lost their sense of curiosity and they aren’t any less capable. They just don’t have a clear path to contribute in meaningful ways.
For so long, the default solution to any challenge was to hire. Need capacity? Hire. Need expertise? Hire. Need perspective? Hire. And for a long time, it worked (or did it?). So roles got more specialized, teams got more siloed, and consultants walked in before internal strengths were ever tapped.
Meanwhile, the people who are still standing keep absorbing more work, more ambiguity, more emotional load. Not because they aren’t capable, but because there is no infrastructure for them to surface and leverage their strengths.
And thus was created the dilemma of over hiring and under developing.
Herein lies the opportunity. Talent activation.
Talent activation is the practice of surfacing hidden skills, tapping into dormant expertise, de-siloing knowledge, capturing generational wisdom, and building internal capability instead of simply outsourcing tasks. It shifts an organization from being a place where brilliance must be hired to one where brilliance is empowered.
In this moment defined by constraint, talent activation becomes a competitive advantage.
It increases problem-solving capacity because people feel invited to solve the real problems.
It builds resilience because teams actually know what one another can do.
It accelerates innovation because ideas come from everywhere, not just leadership.
It strengthens organizational intelligence because wisdom doesn’t leak out during every reorg.
And it boosts retention because people stay where they feel trusted and valued.
We don’t have a talent shortage. We just don’t have a clear picture of the talent we already have. And until leaders name that, companies will keep overhiring, under-developing, and burning out the people best positioned to help them grow.
The organizations that move forward will be the ones that stop looking for answers somewhere over the rainbow and start activating what’s already in the building. Not by chasing unicorns, but by actually using the capability they’ve spent years hiring, training, and retaining.
And the talent you’ve been overlooking? It’s not dormant. It’s not missing. It’s simply waiting for a system that knows how to put it to work.
About the Author:
Molly Dennen (she/her) is the founder of Infinitus Learning and a leading expert in Learning & Development. Molly empowers clients to create effective learning systems and leadership programs tailored to their needs and aligned with business goals. With over 12 years and 20,000 hours of facilitation experience, she has coached senior leaders on communication, leadership, and change management.
She supports ambitious organizations, from high-growth startups to legacy teams ready to reinvent. Through forward-thinking L&D strategy and people-first systems, Molly activates talent, sparks innovation, and builds cultures that learn fast and scale smart - helping companies grow sustainably, stay relevant, and shape the future of work.
