Today is vague, and I’m hoping you’ll help me flesh out an idea.
Last week, I wrote about hiring for roles vs. hiring for talent.
Perhaps the real ‘condition’ underlying this all too prevalent phenomenon is actually the difficulty in distinguishing the past from past experience, and its general ability to predict future outcomes.
Most companies hire for past experience while making the assumption that the past can predict the future, and therefore said experiences transfer from past contexts into present and future ones. This is itself a proxy that becomes, for lack of a better linguistic signpost, the basis of qualification impacting hiring decisions.
The problem is that the ability of the past to accurately predict the future breaks down as change accelerates. We’re in a time of accelerating change. All hands on deck. Across the board. Now.
Let me give you an example.
You are looking for a CCO or something like that, you know, title and scope and impact — i.e. outcome-dependency, where the wrong hire could ground or tank your scaling ship. You interview a boatload of candidates and you find someone who has done it all before. Stellar.
But the past is no longer a meaningful blueprint.
The question is not so much whether or not the past qualification is valuable, or the person capableThe question is, did that outcome come from an adeptness navigating uncertainty, chaos and the broader nature of emergence within which we all operate and attempt to predict the future? Doubtful, because this is not most of our training. Insert plug about how this is actually what I’m good at.
Anyways, you’re certainly not screening for it. Nobody is. Soft factors, intuition, measurelessness and black boxes. It’s a mess.
Insert caveat here, critical hires can never be made based on facts alone. It’s wicked hard to measure a candidate’s ability to deal with ambiguity, to know whether they will be able to bottle lightning in emergence or deal with your emergencies in a way that will help you win — and to distinguish the future from what you think you need.
If you’re still reading, comment, start a dialogue, don’t let this one go by. This week, I’ll be diving deeper into my outbound plans, slated for next week, and try lining up a few more sacred cows to slaughter. I don’t know what I’m trying to say here. I’m just trying to put words to pattern, perhaps, finding language for something that is still out of reach to me. Walter Benjamin’s here and we’re diving into grey.
Then do something about your own shortcomings. I’m trying to.
Hey there! 🥟
I’m searching for an ambitious, cross-functional ops role at a Seed / Series A+ startup. To learn more, visit the #huntatscale project page — https://yum.butterystack.com/hunt/
Want to learn about amazing SaaS tools to build leverage and scale from startup to Series A and beyond? Check out the Buttery Stack directory 🥞 — https://yum.butterystack.com/home/
