Now read on…

Job seekers take heart! In the current financial maelstrom, you may suddenly find yourself unemployed, laid off, or downsized, with too much month at end of the money. Well, a report from the Harvard Business Review will bolster your confidence as you search for that all-too-elusive new role. So, especially you executives, take this time to retrain, build your skills, and take advantage of the excellent career development and e-learning programs that have emerged over the last decade or so.

No.

Actually: that’s wrong: it seems that you won’t be getting the keys to the executive restroom unless you’re a member of the correct ‘old school tie’ network, the right golf club, or can give the interview panel a "positive gut feeling" – whatever that is – in your single, not-very-rigorous meeting with your interrogators. That’s if a C-level exec bothers to attend your interview at all.

According to HBR,

…only half of those recruited for the top three tiers of management  [in Fortune 500 companies] were interviewed by anyone in the C-suite. And fully half the companies relied primarily on the hiring manager’s gut feel, selecting a candidate believed to have ‘what it took’ to be successful in any job.

When the publication surveyed fifty CEOs of global companies, along with a pool of executive search consultants who work with about 500 organizations, they found hiring practices to be “disturbingly vague:” respondents relied heavily on subjective personal preferences or on largely unquestioned organizational traditions, often based on false assumptions.

Sir Fred Goodwin, ex-CEO, Royal Bank of Scotland: did he have “what it takes?” [Image courtesy The Guardian]

Even better news for jobseekers: the evidence of the survey indicates that regardless of a candidate’s suitability for the role, their professional experiences, and their range of competencies, the executives surveyed held

…widely differing views regarding the desirable attributes of new hires. They emphatically disagreed on whether it was best to hire insiders or outsiders, on who should be involved in the recruiting process, on what assessment tools were most suitable, and on what the keys were to successful hiring and retention.

Little surprise then that about a third of promising new hires leave an organization within three years of being recruited.

The HBR admitted to being "stunned" that many CEOs are ignorant of their company’s own demographic projections mandating hiring to replace soon-to-be-retiring managers; "even those who recognize the looming shortage of talent are ill-prepared to fill it."

However, don’t despair: I’m pleased to say these redoubtable captains of industry, the self-styled masters of the universe who got our economy into this whole mess are maintaining their impeccable record of due diligence, risk assessment, and forward planning, and can’t be accused of continuing to behave like the greedy, short-sighted, self-serving parasites they’ve proved to be in the past. Could anyone really agree with a shareholder who said of the board of one of the Irish banks:

If we didn’t live in a tolerant society, the chairman and the rest of the board would be hanging by their necks by piano wire.

Now – that’s wrong too.

In a recent blog post, I discussed some of the implications and consequences of the ‘PlayStation Generation’ entering the workforce; the HBR report supports the view that if the world’s ‘top’ organizations can’t even establish a process for on-boarding employees in the present, we ordinary working Joe’s and Josephine’s are all pretty much up the Swanee if we rely upon them to hire – and perform – effectively in times to come.

The famous Suwannee River, Florida. What we are up.

The Review published a very useful seven-step guide outlining the phases of a properly-structured interview process (see Figure 1).

Don’t forget, that these fine fellows – for it is mostly men – are all looking for gainful employment too, since they have all resigned their positions in ignominy, if not shame (most of them don’t seem to understand shame). Perhaps they can take advantage of this comprehensive process too:

Figure 1. Hiring Executives Process Guide (after Harvard Business Review, 2009)

Look and learn.

___________

References:

Fernández-Aráoz., Groysberg, B., Nohria, N. (2009). The Definitive Guide to Recruiting in Good Times and Bad. Harvard Business Review [Internet] Available from: http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2009/05/the-definitive-guide-to-recruiting-in-good-times-and-bad/ar/1?cm_mmc=npv-_-DAILY_STAT-_-MAY_2009-_-STAT0519 Accessed 19 May 2009

–

Now read on…

If you’re not familiar with the latter two concepts here’s a little background: the idea of the strength of weak ties is a theory from sociology; according to its originator Mark Granovetter

the argument asserts that our acquaintances (weak ties) are less likely to be socially involved with one another than are our close friends (strong ties). Thus the set of people made up of any individual and his or her acquaintances comprises a low-density network (one in which many of the possible relational lines are absent) whereas the set consisting of the same individual and his or her close friends will be densely knit (many of the possible lines are present).

It follows, then, that individuals with few weak ties will be deprived of information from distant parts of the social system and will be confined to the provincial news and views of their close friends. This deprivation will [...] insulate them from the latest ideas.

(1983, pp.201-202)

The concept of the long tail is something both Jay Cross and Tony Karrer have recently discussed and is example of how the Web (and particularly Web 2.0 technology) changes the way assets – whether physical artifacts like books, or knowledge and informational assets persist for an extended period beyond their supposed “sell-by” date:

Long tails for the enterprise occur when the power to create and publish is widely held, the content can be distributed at near-zero cost and a market exists that connects knowledge workers with a nearly infinite number of content creators.

(Kilian, D. 2007)

Here’s a pertinent example of how these ideas manifest themselves in the workplace: last week, I suffered from a niggly problem with my Outlook e-mail client – it wouldn’t poll the Exchange server and update itself every 20 minutes as it was supposed to do. So I logged a snag on the corporate Bugzilla implementation about the issue. The IT person, who I would describe as being a a journeyman level of competence (has passed their certification exams and is no longer a novice, but is not yet an expert) wen though all the things your supposed to do to resolve such issues

• ran ScanPST.exe
• checked my e-mail profile
• consulted MSDN
• looked at forums for similar issues based on the Error ID

… as well as some “beyond the call of duty” activities (a time-consuming MS Office reinstall).

All to no avail.

So I got my laptop back and had resolved myself to living with this seemingly intractable minor inconvenience, when a third contributor (a more knowledgeable IT support person), working from home, happened to encounter the issue when scanning through Bugzilla, entered the discussion with a simple “I know what this is.”

So, by accessing my laptop via a PC-sharing application, the issue was resolved in about 20 minutes, after 5 days of dead ends and frustration.

The moral of the story is: by developing a corporate culture that encourages wide-ranging participation, and by providing a corporate knowledge-sharing environment (Bugzilla in this case), you increase the chances that somebody you’re associated with, no matter how loosely, will have the appropriate knowledge and expertise to find a solution to an issue. The added learning benefit from the journeyman contributors perspective, is that they have added to their knowledge experientially, by interacting with the More Knowledgeable Other. I would suggest that the knowledge asset acquired by being involved in this problem-solving activity has been aggregated into their personal experience schema, enabling them to grow a little more knowledgeable (or even wiser).

Oh yes… the solution to the Outlook issue?

Delete and recreate your profile in Outlook.

_______________

References:

Cross, J. (2008) Strength of weak knowledge sources. [Internet] Available from: http://internettime.com/2008/04/21/strength-of-weak-knowledge-sources/ Accessed 1 July 2008

Granovetter, M. (1983) The Strength of Weak Ties: A Network Theory Revisited. Sociological Theory, Volume 1, 201-233. State University of New York,
Stonybrook. [Internet] Available from: http://www.si.umich.edu/~rfrost/courses/SI110/readings/In_Out_and_Beyond/Granovetter.pdf Accessed 1 July 2008

Karrer, T. (2008) Corporate Learning Long Tail and Attention Crisis : eLearning Technology. [Internet] Available from: http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/2008/02/corporate-learning-long-tail-and.html Accessed 1 July 2008

Kilian, D. (2007) The Learning Organization Meets the Long Tail (Part 2). [Internet] Available from:
http://www.clomedia.com/guest-editorial/2007/October/1949/index.php Accessed 1 July 2008

Now read on…

If you’re not familiar with the latter two concepts here’s a little background: the idea of the strength of weak ties is a theory from sociology; according to its originator Mark Granovetter

the argument asserts that our acquaintances (weak ties) are less likely to be socially involved with one another than are our close friends (strong ties). Thus the set of people made up of any individual and his or her acquaintances comprises a low-density network (one in which many of the possible relational lines are absent) whereas the set consisting of the same individual and his or her close friends will be densely knit (many of the possible lines are present).

It follows, then, that individuals with few weak ties will be deprived of information from distant parts of the social system and will be confined to the provincial news and views of their close friends. This deprivation will [...] insulate them from the latest ideas.

(1983, pp.201-202)

The concept of the long tail is something both Jay Cross and Tony Karrer have recently discussed and is example of how the Web (and particularly Web 2.0 technology) changes the way assets – whether physical artifacts like books, or knowledge and informational assets persist for an extended period beyond their supposed “sell-by” date:

Long tails for the enterprise occur when the power to create and publish is widely held, the content can be distributed at near-zero cost and a market exists that connects knowledge workers with a nearly infinite number of content creators.

(Kilian, D. 2007)

Here’s a pertinent example of how these ideas manifest themselves in the workplace: last week, I suffered from a niggly problem with my Outlook e-mail client – it wouldn’t poll the Exchange server and update itself every 20 minutes as it was supposed to do. So I logged a snag on the corporate Bugzilla implementation about the issue. The IT person, who I would describe as being a a journeyman level of competence (has passed their certification exams and is no longer a novice, but is not yet an expert) wen though all the things your supposed to do to resolve such issues

• ran ScanPST.exe
• checked my e-mail profile
• consulted MSDN
• looked at forums for similar issues based on the Error ID

… as well as some “beyond the call of duty” activities (a time-consuming MS Office reinstall).

All to no avail.

So I got my laptop back and had resolved myself to living with this seemingly intractable minor inconvenience, when a third contributor (a more knowledgeable IT support person), working from home, happened to encounter the issue when scanning through Bugzilla, entered the discussion with a simple “I know what this is.”

So, by accessing my laptop via a PC-sharing application, the issue was resolved in about 20 minutes, after 5 days of dead ends and frustration.

The moral of the story is: by developing a corporate culture that encourages wide-ranging participation, and by providing a corporate knowledge-sharing environment (Bugzilla in this case), you increase the chances that somebody you’re associated with, no matter how loosely, will have the appropriate knowledge and expertise to find a solution to an issue. The added learning benefit from the journeyman contributors perspective, is that they have added to their knowledge experientially, by interacting with the More Knowledgeable Other. I would suggest that the knowledge asset acquired by being involved in this problem-solving activity has been aggregated into their personal experience schema, enabling them to grow a little more knowledgeable (or even wiser).

Oh yes… the solution?

Delte and recreate your profile in Outlook.

_______________

References:

Cross, J. (2008) Strength of weak knowledge sources. [Internet] Available from: http://internettime.com/2008/04/21/strength-of-weak-knowledge-sources/ Accessed 1 July 2008

Granovetter, M. (1983) The Strength of Weak Ties: A Network Theory Revisited. Sociological Theory, Volume 1, 201-233. State University of New York,
Stonybrook. [Internet] Available from: http://www.si.umich.edu/~rfrost/courses/SI110/readings/In_Out_and_Beyond/Granovetter.pdf Accessed 1 July 2008

Karrer, T. (2008) Corporate Learning Long Tail and Attention Crisis : eLearning Technology. [Internet] Available from: http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/2008/02/corporate-learning-long-tail-and.html Accessed 1 July 2008

Kilian, D. (2007) The Learning Organization Meets the Long Tail (Part 2). [Internet] Available from:
http://www.clomedia.com/guest-editorial/2007/October/1949/index.php Accessed 1 July 2008