Do You Have Two Sinks?

Most of us live in homes, condos, or apartments equipped with at least two different sinks or washbasins; thus equipped, you may be able to perform a little experiment designed to give you new perspective on the hiring process you perform or manage at work.

For most of us involved in hiring, whatever process we use becomes deeply embedded with habits; things we do over and over, rarely deviating from the habits, whether they contribute to producing a “good hire”, or not. We ask the same, tired, interview questions of every candidate (in the name of “equal treatment”, even though the answers are not proven predictors of performance); we doggedly call and recall references until we’ve heard 3 of them tell us the candidate can walk on water (if they tell us anything at all); we read resumes and applications as though the contents were gospel.

We may use tests and assessments that were in place before we began our tenure here, never asking if they actually produce results; we may compare our candidates to a “national pattern”, as though working here was no different than working in a similar company a thousand miles away, or with a similar product but a different customer.

Habits…you get the idea. When was the last time you and the people you work with actually sat down and dissected, examined, and evaluated your entire recruiting and hiring system? How well is it working? Does it consistently add to your force of top performers? How often does it fail miserably? What does it really cost, when you add up the time and effort involved? Is it defensible?

Oh, yes, our experiment! If you think you’re personally immune to the seductive effects of comfortable habits, in the hiring process or elsewhere; if you think you’d notice the habits involved, please try our experiment:

To begin, place a folded towel in the sink where you usually perform your morning and evening rituals of tooth and hair brushing, putting on makeup, shaving, or whatever else your own ritual encompasses. That sink, for 24 hours, is now off-limits. Move your rituals, and all the required supplies, to a different sink in your home. As you prepare for the day, or for bed, notice all the little, inappropriate, awkward movements you involuntarily make. A reach for the toothpaste tube (it’s usually right there!)…grab for the hand towel (oops, that’s at the other sink)…did you bring supplies you don’t need? Did you forget some that you do need?

While I was traveling recently, my spouse ran into a problem with the sink in the bathroom our twins use, so she did the logical thing: She pirated the parts she needed from the sink I obviously wasn’t needing at the moment! I came home to a sink full of towel and plumbing parts. No problem, we have twin basins in our bath, so I could just use hers. I was amazed at how disrupted my rituals were by moving about 30 inches to the left! The habits that had crept into a process as simple as brushing my teeth resulted in reaching for things that weren’t there, grabbing the wrong drawer to look for something, and a sense that things were just generally out of whack.

Take a look at your hiring process; see if habit has replaced good practice, and perhaps subverted the goal of the whole thing: An efficient way to produce a good hire, every time.