How do you evaluate talent?

Organizations generally will look for “what will work” when evaluating and making selections around talent in their companies.

They should have “this type of industry experience”
They should have “this type of education”
They should have “this type of personality”

Not so fast.

This approach to company building creates a myopic and ossified team and reduces the agility and intentionally constructive ambiguity that is required in the current markets.

When I hear statements like “they have lots of experience in….”, which at first can seem like an exclusive benefit, I translate it into “they only have experience in……” as a balance to considering it a liability.

Over-indexing of domain expertise in an organization leads to a cognitive, emotional, intellectual entrenchment and the reduced capability of introducing dislocating approaches to a market.

Perhaps make a list of “what definitely does not work” or a “hell no” and everyone and everything else needs to be on the table in your evaluation of talent.

Sharing with you first-hand that it works.