Hiring Like Warren….Pick One: Change or Improvement?….Don’t Brain-STORM, Brain-SWARM…..Econ Recon: Tight, or “Less Loose”?….2030 and Out

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”

 Mark Twain

 Hiring Like Warren

 We know Warren Buffet can pick stocks…but how does he pick the people who help him make the picks? Buffett is well known for doing his homework on stocks with a focused, disciplined approach on getting the right data. He does the same when he hires: focusing on intelligence, energy and integrity. This one page article outlines the critical hiring data you may not be gathering about these vital characteristics…. but that the Sage of Omaha does.

 Pick One: Change or Improvement?

Most C-level executives find themselves besieged by those with a vested interest in changing things. Often consultants, new hires, academics and others seem to be proposing change for change’s sake before looking at the reason why existing processes, institutions, traditions and protocols came to be in the first place.

WSJ Columnist Peggy Noonan offers an historical example of the importance of looking at why a practice exists before dismissing it as outdated or ineffective. She looks at the long standing practice of wealthy Englishmen being able to buy command of a British regiment with no military credentials. To us this smacks of an egregious privilege given our traditions of a military run by professional soldiers. But Noonan takes a closer look at the very good reasons that brought this system into being, how it helped an island nation become the most powerful country in the world….and the very good reasons that brought an end to this practice and the rise of the professionally trained military the UK knows today.  (Hint: Incentives and enlightened self- interest matter).

Her recent two page article “Captaincy,” deserves five minutes of your time.  If you have the final say on change in your organization, this is required reading.

Don’t Brain-STORM…. Brain-SWARM!

BrainSTORMING in one form or another has been around for over fifty years but some experts maintain that it does not work because  of the way it’s usually run. The problem is that when conducted verbally in a group, brainstorming can effectively exclude introverts who may be reticent to speak around others and may fail to capture the input of both  “bottom up” thinkers and “top down thinkers”.

Consider an alternative…Brain-SWARMING …which still utilizes the power of the group, but in ways that increase its idea generation by a factor of five..   This 4 minute video from Harvard Business School:  “Brainswarming, because Brainstorming doesn’t work”  will help any meeting facilitator unleash what’s REALLY in the room!

Econ Recon

Tight or less loose: The markets may have been worried recently about the Fed tightening up but economist Brian Wesbury thinks that tight money is not imminent… and muses whether the Fed will make money  “tighter” or just “less loose.”

2030 and Out: Vistage Staff Economist and ITR Economics principal Alan Beaulieu recently advised a manufacturer’s association to be aggressive in investing in your business now…and to be out of the game by 2030 at the latest. For more on timing the next 15 years of your career, check the Beaulieu’s book, Prosperity in the Age of Decline.