Riffing on Ratings

We’re at the beginning of the new year and the pace of our internship applications is speeding up, as June hopefuls are catching the wave of their parents’ pessimism about the job market opening up by graduation day.  Many years ago, in my last HR leadership position, I had an elaborate ratings system for crushes of applicants.  (This was when we kept records in Lotus 1-2-3…)  The problem was, it never worked.  Oh, the Lotus part worked fine.  The predictions of who would actually do well didn’t.

Now we just have everyone apply online and learn about our product at the same time by actually experiencing it.  Following this process, it’s amazing how many realize how well – or not – they fit.  So I was thinking, what could I have done better in the pre-Role-Based Assessment days?  And I came up with three things.  Would have been nice if I could have predicted these back then…

• Are you willing to dance with your co-workers?  (I don’t mean samba, two-step, or hip-hop. I mean move alongside, against, or around them, as appropriate.)
• Do you have the ability to harmonize with your co-workers?  (Not just in hitting the high notes and chords.  Can you also avoid the kind of dissonance that makes people grimace?)
• Can you make music some new way with your co-workers?  (It doesn’t have to be music, literally.  Just a team initiative or activity that didn’t exist before.)

It’s a rating system that doesn’t rule that everyone have the same ‘profile’.  As the late, great John Coltrane said, ‘Damn the rules.  It’s the feeling that counts.  You play all twelve notes anyway.’