Spanning Silos...Fostering Collaboration...How do you hire for that?
Spanning silos and fostering collaboration in complex systems requires an open mind, steadfast persistence and unyielding resolve. So how exactly do you hire for that? I asked Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School that question last week and his answer: look for attitude. Find someone with opinion yet isn't opinionated; someone who questions assumptions but also has a clear point-of-view; someone who leverages conflict instead of fears it.
And where do you find someone like that?
BIF research advisor John Seely Brown (JSB) has been doing a bit of research into this area too and he suggests the multiplayer online gaming environment as an attractive source of new hires. His recent blog post "The Gamer Disposition" highlights five attributes of these players. JSB even goes so far as to say that gamers who embody these attributes are "better able than their nongamer counterparts to thrive in the twenty-first-century workplace."
His five gamer attributes: (1) they are bottom-line oriented; (2) they understand the power of diversity; (3) they thrive on change; (4) they see learning as fun; and (5) they 'marinate on the edge'. These are polar opposite attributes from typical management processes which are built to ensure discipline, alignment and conformance.
Of course it's a big leap from the virtual gamer world to the real-world but you can see the potential convergence - as companies find increasing competitive advantage with a strong knowledge-based workforce, employees are looking for companies that also reflect these gamer attributes.
Posted May 6, 2008 09:39 AM by Chris Flanagan | Permalink
