Exponential curves

I had the pleasure of attending a meeting of other between opportunities 40+ year olds recently.  What fascinated me was the moment in the presentation when "HR departments" and "HR people" were briefly discussed.  Clearly, the vibe I've been getting about recruitment is one that may well be shared more broadly.

The speaker, a woman with 30+ years' experience in Strategic Communications and Marketing was speaking on creating a Marketing plan for one's job search.  During the course of her discussion, she mentioned in passing that even now (30 years after graduating from university), she is sometimes asked about the relevance of her History undergraduate degree and her graduate work (also in History), to her career choice.  I ask you, at what point does the degree cease to matter?  After 30 years doing the work successfully, and rising to the position of VP of Marketing and Public Relations, isn't the degree a moot point?

This raises a question in my mind about the quality of interviewing that's taking place.  I sometimes wonder  whether organizations recognize that a candidate who has a breadth of knowledge in areas outside the specific narrow focus of the company is actually a great find.  All that 'other' knowledge is available to be brought to bear on current problems/challenges within your organization.  All that 'other' knowledge opens up an entirely different way of looking at and solving problems.  Who wouldn't want that?  It seems to me that the challenges organizations and countries face, well from that fact that there isn't enough THINKING going on and when I say 'thinking' I don't mean identical thinking, I mean different thinking, outside-the-norm thinking.  DOING has trumped THINKING and I'm here to plead (a small voice crying out in the wilderness) for thought.

Thought, my fine friends, is where it's at.  I know that to the impatient investor it doesn't seem to generate much, but that's because we've believed the hype that everything is supposed to generate an immediate return on investment.  Sometimes, especially early on, ROI is almost imperceptible to the eye and harder still to measure but the benefits of thought should be viewed as lying on an exponential curve.  If you remember your high school algebra, an exponential curve starts off practically flat and runs close to the x-axis for a time.  Later though, a marvelous thing happens, the curve shoots up into the air, and if you have a really big sheet of graph paper, off into infinity. 

a typical exponential curve (courtesy Photobucket)

So spend a little time thinking, and if you're an organization looking to hire, hire a thinker or two.  You may find that your organization is better off as a consequence.  Doers do.  Thinkers, think and then do and when they do, hang on tight because the curve is about to take off.