Whether people and organizations like it or not, the current pandemic is accelerating the digitalization of the enterprise at all levels. Still, many organizations are late to the party, and some aren’t acting at all.
I recently had a chat, via video of course, with the Head of HR of a meat processing and packing company. These companies rely on outside agencies for recruiting, which is very costly, and right now they’re not getting enough people coming through the door to be able to satisfy the demand; the result is less than average volume and sales because they don’t have the capacity to fulfill orders.
The company was looking for a fresh perspective, thus how I ended up in a videoconference with this person. I recommended the Head of HR use a different method: leapfrog the agency and do the recruiting themselves through digital channels.
This means they need to have the capability within their HR department to execute this approach; which they don’t because they’re tied to the old way of doing things. The Head of HR agreed they should take matters into their own hands, but suggested they would do a job fair in their own grounds!
I was dumbfounded when I heard this. A job fair is an old school recruiting tactic, but putting it together requires logistics and an outreach strategy. Not to mention that it will require more time and planning to develop social distancing protocols with the current pandemic.
I was ignored, and my perspective was not taken into consideration. There’s a reason why experience is a key enemy of innovation, this is it.
Perspective is worth more than IQ
Experience is closely related with IQ. The more you do something the better you get. But people who have a lot of experience develop the curse of knowledge, believing the know more than anyone else. They’re blinded and stuck, and anything that doesn’t confirm of validate their experience is ignored.
This happens all the time. The pandemic is not going to change this fact of human nature, because most people will stay stuck where they are unable to see the world from another perspective. So if you’ve been working in the same industry for 20+ years, guess what, that’s all you know! That’s your perspective.
So what are you going to do about it?
You can’t wish or hope your way to a different perspective; you have to act your way. This means having an open mind and actively look for new perspectives with the same hunger you have for being right.
Remember, we don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are.