by Patty Azzarello
Creative Thinking vs. Job Skills
This a story I first read about 15 years ago in an airline magazine. If you google âbaramoter storyâ youâll find mixed opinions on the source of it, but it a great story worth sharing.
Solve this problemâ¦
This was a science class and there was a homework problem which was the following:
If you needed to find out the height of a tall building using only a barometer, how would you do it?
The âcorrectâ answer involved measuring the air pressure at the top of the building and on the ground, and using the difference in air pressure to calculate the height of the building. Kids that used that approach and got the math right were marked correct and given full credit.
But there were two other answers that stood out to me, that the teacher marked wrong, with no credit.
I would have marked these correct and given these two students a job!
The first âwrongâ answer:
One student said he would take the barometer to the top of the building, drop it off, count how many seconds it takes to hit the ground, and calculate the height based on the time of the fall.
This is probably at least as accurate an answer as using the air pressure based approach.
The second âwrongâ answer â even better!
This student said, I would find the general manager of the building and say to him. âIf you tell me how tall this building is, I will give you this barometer.â  â Fantastic!
Not only did this solution meet the requirements of solving the problem, it was likely to give a far more accurate answer than the correct answer based on air pressure!
What a shame these two students were marked wrong. These are precisely the kind of creative thinking skills that help people solve important problems when the by-the-book way does not work.
Be careful what you ask for
I have made many hiring mistakes by looking for job skills â by keeping my interview only to the spec of what needed to be done by the person in the next 6-12 months.
People would come in with very impressive experience and just the right skills to do the job that needed to be done right now. These hires are so tempting because you can see how they will immediately take some pain away.
But, what about when the job changes?
But more often than not, when the world changes around them, they get stuck. They donât adapt easily. They need to find another job that matches their skills vs. being able to step up to do the new job that needs to be done.
Hire Fast Learners
The most valuable hires are the ones that can do the job today, but also can learn and adapt. You are far more likely to hire a star if you ask questions that get at how the person thinks, and hire creative thinkers that are fast learners.
In your interview process you need to try and assess how much potential the person has to learn, and judge how fast they will grow. People with the most room for growth and the most acceleration (smarts and ambition) are your best hires.
This approach is valuable from hiring summer interns, to top executives. I have used it at every level, once I learned that sticking to the job spec doesnât work very well.
Some approachesâ¦
1. Puzzles: Actually give someone a puzzle to solve. Some people will get annoyed and refuse to engage, some will give up very quickly, and others will visibly start thinking and working it out. They will tell you how they are thinking about approaching the problem. They will ask you more questions about it. Hire the person who is doing something with the problem.
2. Stories: Ask for stories about how the world was different when they first got into a job compared to how it is now. What did they think needed to be done? What new ideas did they come up with? What changes did they drive? If they just did the job as-is for a few years, and did not grow the responsibility or usefulness of their role, they are not a top hire.
3. Actual Problems: Tell them a situation that you are facing that needs a solution. Ask them to talk through how they would approach it. The ones that say, I donât know yet, Iâd need to get into the job first, are not your top people. The ones that ask a bunch more questions and say, of course Iâd need to listen and learn more, but from what I know right now this is what I think⦠and start offering insights, have stronger creative thinking skills.
What clever interview techniques have you used to get the best hires?
Please share the great questions, puzzles, problems or other approaches you’ve used to learn more about your candidates’ creative thinking skills. I’d love to hear your ideas in the comment box.
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Patty Azzarello works with executives where leadership and business challenges meet. She has held leadership roles in General Management, Marketing, Software Product Development and Sales, and has been successful in running large and small businesses. She writes at The Azzarello Group Blog. You’ll find her on Twitter as @PattyAzzarello
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Great post. The days of a resume full of bullet points should be over. We don’t work in a one skill-set for every job world anymore and the people who are going to help your business fly are the ones who are paying attention all the time, looking for opportunities and able to multi-task to make those opportunities happen.
Look for the people who see the problem as a puzzle and find a way to make it happen, not try to fit it into a box they already know.
Great advice in this piece! The tips could also be useful on the other side of the desk – for the job seeker. I would use these tips as inspiration for points that could be worked in to answers during an interview. When giving an example of how you resolved a problem, you could offer a brief outline of how you arrived at your solution, for instance, to illustrate your “puzzle solving” skills. That perspective would make your answers that much more meaningful and relevant.
Point well said — what a job is today may not be what it is 6 months from now — whether you are in big co or startup.
I have always liked this video from Pixar University about innovation and hiring for jobs that didnt exist before (eg how they put together qualifications to hire the first astronauts). Their lesson: “In the innovation economy, stop looking for someone who has done it before. Look for someone who has done something else amazing before (and not necessarily in the same business.)”
And if you like- the video and more at: http://www.thinkingoutloud.com/eg_ventures/2009/04/what-predicts-the-ability-to-innovate.html
Thanks, Janet.
You make a good point that this is true now more than ever.
I have made the mistake of hiring for skills vs ability to grow. One other trick..
Always look for advancement, variety, and weird interesting stuff on a resume.
I almost hired a guy sight unseen who had “wheelchair rugby champion” on his resume!
Patty
Patty,
Many managers and executives are always looking for the “trick” or “clever” interviewing technique that will “reveal” the candidate’s future potential.
However, I would suggest that interviewing is not about asking “clever questions”. It’s simply first understanding your own expectations for the role. Secondly, it’s simply a combination of understanding someone’s potential through the quality and trajectory of their comparable achievements in the past.
Interviewing is actually quite simple when roles are well defined in terms of expectations of results and questions are focused on comparable past accomplishments.
You did list a few great examples and illustrations in your blog post. For example, if the company is one that is rapidly evolving and changing, and the candidate must be able to adapt through continuous rapid learning, then the key is to measure where they have had to do continuous rapid learning. Then you’ve got to determine if the environment and accomplishment is comparable to your situation.
This is the classic technique of behavioral interviewing boosted by measuring the ability to achieve specific expectations.
Thanks for raising this issue of measuring a candidate’s future potential.
Barry Deutsch
Partner
IMPACT Hiring Solutions
http://www.impacthiringsolutions.com/blog
Couldn’t agree more.
I’d far rather hire someone who has demonstrated learning capability, natural curiosity, problem solving and adventurous spirit than someone who has simply followed the rules and methodologies set by those before them. Today’s workplace is about creatively breaking through challenges and unmarked territories quicker and smoother than competitors. An innovative and inventive thinker – even if they’ve never faced a particular challenge before – will create more competitive advantage than someone who follows the accepted protocols. Just look at Social Media. Its not the traditional communicators and long experienced marketers who were first to jump in, experiment and leverage the power!
I could not agree more. I work with digital forensics professionals, and most of them do their hiring like this — technology changes so fast, they need people who not only know the stuff but can adapt as it changes.
I see similar changes for marketing and PR; other professions may not have the same need for on-the-fly improvisation and innovation, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try to apply those principles to get the best candidates.
Hi Everyone, thanks for the inputs. Barry, I agree completely, you need to include creative thinking, judgment and leadership skills in the definition of the role too.
and Liz, thanks for Pixar reference. Look for someone who has done something else amazing before!
thanks, Patty