I call it the Moneyball Effect.
Companies can allow personal and subjective biases which have no basis in reality to strongly influence recruiting, hiring, and promotion decisions. Just like the movie, by foolishly picking only people who fit a specific stereotype without any actual evidence to support that rigid profile or just going with who you like or who is like you, you will consistently overlook talented individuals who could make much larger contributions to the success of the organization.
It becomes a real competitive disadvantage and will injure or bankrupt the company. Like the movie, the teams were actually spending the most money on lower performing players based on the personal and subjective biases of the old school scouts and missing much stronger players who could be acquired for far less money because they did not fit a specific outdated stereotype and the scouts ignored the actual performance data.
Integrity and performance must govern and success comes in many different packages. You have to always be recruiting from a wide range of talent sources, be very open-minded, take your time, study and optimize your process, and be truly evidence-based in decisions.
You should hire character and skills because you can always teach specific subjects but you cannot ever teach character. As Collins teaches, you hire culture and if they don’t share your mission and values prior to hiring, they never will afterwards.
Like the movie, you want to always make sure you are never missing out on genuine talent which could ensure a winning team. I am grateful that I work for an organization that truly provides full and equal opportunities for all individuals for employment and promotion. I can cite specific examples of stars who might have been missed by other organizations who we now have on our team hitting home runs for us.
People ask me, “How is your organization winning all these awards and leading on technology and other key metrics?” I will always answer, “Success starts and ends with who you hire and how you develop that talent.” There’s your leadership lesson for today.
