The unemployment rate, not including marginal status, is hovering close to ten percent. The market is flooded with eager applicants, many of whom I personally know. In this environment, the job seeker is plagued by the forces of downward pressure, depressed wages, and fleeting offers. The rare company that is hiring today has an equally challenging problem – sifting through the multitude to find the person who has the ideas and know-how to propel your company along. Companies small and large need more than just workers. Idea originators, thought provocateurs, and connectors are needed in this knowledge economy. More than ever, this is true with print as the product becomes more of a commodity and the ideas and services are the profit centers. To find people to fuel these profit centers just put up a screen, both figuratively and literally.
In the early 1980′s the concert music world was turned on its head by a trombonist. The instrument that was groomed from the trumpet had long been considered a masculine instrument requiring lots of air from a healthy set of lungs. But in 1980 at the 16th audition of the Munich Philharmonic, the unexpected happened. A graduate of Temple University and the Julliard School belted out musical notes with force and bravado to the delight of the judges who were searching for the best possible musical talent. The problem, or ingenuity depending upon your perspective, was that the auditions were blind auditions held behind a screen. After number 16 had been called, the judges were dumbstruck that the best player was a woman named Abbie Conant. The judges, subsequently, held two more audition rounds without a screen to confirm their initial reaction.
The path of Abbie Conant exemplifies a major failure of the hiring process, neutral objectivity. Ms. Conant had been the best trombone player of the day, yet still had to fight through two more rounds of auditions and years of prejudice to come. The judges simply refused to believe that a woman could master a masculine instrument reserved for the skill of a man. Their eyes failed them due to a commonly held stereotype, but their ears and musical expertise could see through the screen to hear a masterful trombonist.
In the pursuit of finding the best employees for the success of your business, it is crucial to let down your belief system and put up a screen. This will allow you to focus on what matters and block what you feel. Only then can you be neutrally objective and eliminate the many pitfalls of prejudice including age, ethnicity, and gender. By breaking the commonly held beliefs of the current hiring process of interviewing you can unlock the possibility of finding the best person just like the Munich Philharmonic.
Related Links:
William Osborne, “You sound like a ladies orchestra”
Abbie Conant Biography
No related posts.
