On team building

Reams have been written and millions have been made by consultants, trainers and their ilk by lecturing on this topic. So it would be quite natural to ask why a few more kilobytes of Blogger storage should be burdened yet again. Well, the motivation of this blog post has been a thought provoking article by Santosh Desai where he argues that credentials and qualifications are just "one of the several legitimate ways of determining capability". He continues to say that often people have "some hidden reservoir of skills" and when given an opportunity they learn on the job and prove themselves capable.

While the article was written on backdrop of the forthcoming elections and the politicians in the fray, it is indeed relevant to folks like me as well who are in no way connected to politics and would like to stay that way. More on that later.

Come to think of it, Desai's viewpoint is in resonance with "The Law of Pure Potentiality" as explained by Deepak Chopra in his gem of a creation- The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. Chopra says that "anything is possible in the field of pure potentiality" and this if I am not mistaken should include success in business, politics, academics, research etc. etc.

So that brings us to the question as to how do you build your team. It is a common experience of people who have interviewed and hired people for their company is that at least few of the hires are absolutely bad hires and it is the most unlikely candidates who sometimes turn out to be the best hires. Recruitment in the corporate world is normally governed by documented recruitment policies and guidelines. Academic background, experience, current position and salary are key criteria for shortlisting and interviewing. Not only candidates, but their colleges and previous employers are graded as well. The resume is all important and has the biggest influence on the recruitment decision.

My take away from Desai's article is to have an open mind and avoid being judgemental based on resume alone when building a team or assigning responsibilities. The Law of Pure Potentiality is a fundamental and immutable law that must be respected for our own progress and development.

To end, here is a quiz question for folks like me in the IT industry. Say you are interviewing for a programmer's position and you get a guy who has studied chemistry, music and linguistics and who has some experience in System Administration. Would you shortlist him? If you did shortlist him and in the interview if he had said that he considers laziness, impatience and hubris as virtues of a programmer , would you still hire him? Many of us would probably not. Even if we are evolved enough and secure enough to hire people smarter than us, it is difficult to spot a Larry Wall.