A Few Words for Organizations (Public & Private): The Quiet Killers of Organizational Performance Before I turn to the ambitious learners who want to make an impact, build a career, and thrive, a word to organizations, public and private, about the forces that quietly drain capability. These aren’t all the problems, but they are the ones I see most often and rank very high on my list. 1) Wasta and Nepotism: There is a force that quietly weakens organizations: wasta in hiring, promotions, succession planning opportunities, and/or compensation based on personal connections rather than merit or a demonstrable track record. For the individual, wasta can feel like a shortcut. For the organization, it is a slow poison. It puts people in seats they are not prepared to fill, blocks people who are likely to succeed, and over time erodes the organization’s capability. In a world where industries shift and AI raises the bar, wasta does not only hurt fairness; it hurts competitiveness. Technology and budgets cannot fix poor person-role fit. Alhamdulillah, across three decades leading HR across regions and in large and mid-sized organizations, I have never, absolutely never, recruited a relative or a friend. But when I saw genuine potential but a candidate could not get past our interviewers or did not fit our vacancy, I still supported them until they landed a role, if not with us, then elsewhere. I was also fortunate to work with CEOs who modelled this discipline. When someone handed them a CV, they redirected it to HR or passed it to me with a simple request: if you see potential, put them through the process. No pressure. No shortcuts. When I recruit, I think like a diver for pearls, someone who searches for gems. Recruitment is how you find the capable people who will serve your organization for the next five to ten years (and longer if you are lucky). Recruitment and selection is not about getting through CVs. It is about building organizational capability that can weather change and storms. A seat is a scarce asset. Filling it through wasta is not a recruitment problem. It is an integrity problem. Why waste a valuable seat by not choosing the best person you can recruit through a proper, capability-focused selection process? How it Hurts: seats go to connections, not competence, which leads to poor quality of work and performance, rework, managers firefighting and an “effort does not matter” mindset. Your best people leave, and others lower their standards. If you are keen to help a relative or a friend, do it on your time and on your dime. If they fail, you bear the consequences, not an organization that is trying to compete in the market or serve the public/citizens. You can also give them solid advice or run a mock interview. But what if a friend or relative truly is a strong candidate and would serve your organization well? Then declare the relationship and have a panel interview them fairly without pressure. But never in an HR, finance or procurement role. Those should be completely independent of any relationships. Once, a colleague put heavy personal pressure on me to recruit the wife of his best friend. I said no, held the line despite him turning aggressive for the next few weeks. I hired the best person for the team. They did a great job. 2) Poor Selection and Interviewing Processes: When evidence is thin, bias and convenience take over. You end up choosing who is likable or available, not who will perform. How It Hurts: Bad hires keep costing time, morale, and money, again and again. You’ll Notice: “they interviewed well, but...”, surprises after onboarding, slow time to competence, and hiring managers avoiding ownership. Do Instead: a) Write a clear, robust job brief or description tied to outcomes. b) Prepare job-relevant questions. Prepare for the interview; do not wing it. c) Ask the same core questions to every candidate. d) Use simple scorecards to compare answers. e) Add a second independent interviewer with good judgment. f) Include a practical task: a short case, small take-home, or brief job trial. g) Hold a quick alignment chat after interviews to compare notes. h) Train every hiring manager on your team in basic interviewing skills. Note: our government sector has rolled out a performance management system. Just as important, if not more, is building capability-focused recruitment and selection. #OrganizationalPerformance #CapabilityFirst #Interviewingandselection #Wasta

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Gaia

Gaia @dadabit

18 Mar 2018

Replying to @KirkDBorne

This sounds to me as saying " music is composed of notes" not wrong but is it useful? One has to look face recognition, emotion portrayal, video generation, robotics etc, etc, etc when we say AI. I think. #capabilityfirst

एसएसब

एसएसब @ssbawa1

5 Jul 2017

Replying to @OmKrishnayNamah @god_mafia @digvijaya_28

Please don't compare even abrevation used too small for the person's capabilityFirst one must be embarrassed @sambitswaraj @SudhanshuTrived