October 27th, 2008
A LOT of people spend a LOT of time talking about “talent” today. Talent acquisition, talent management, etc., etc. A good friend of mine just returned from a Talent Management Summit. I have other friends in Florida for a conference on talent management and other related issues. I am not against this or opposed to this focus on talent, I just think talent is a much more contextual and conceptual thing than we tend to believe. I also think that while we often think we are trying to hire the most talented person, we end up doing something different, simply because of the way that we are wired as human beings.
“Time and again, the research shows that interviews are poor predictors of job performance because we tend to hire people we think are similar to us rather than thsoe who are objectively going to do a good job.”
-Ori Brafman, Overcoming the Sway in Professional Life, NY Times 7.15.08
In addition to that, hiring the most “talented” individuals does not mean that we are going to end of with the most talented teams. The characteristics of talent on the team, group, department, or organizational level may very well be different than they are on an individaul level. For example…diversity. We now have very solid, scientific data showing that diversity makes for better group performance (innovation, decision-making, problem-solving).
Racial Diversity Leads to Better Decision Making (Tufts University)
For Groups, Diversity Trumps Ability (University of Michigan)
What are you doing to hire for diversity?