“There’s no talent here.”
Usually there is. The filter just doesn’t let it through.
These filters run when you hire, when you hand someone a problem, when you choose who to train. They also run on you, when you wonder whether you’re good enough.
Network
You look where you always look, among people you already know.
That’s the one I ran.
Look instead at: who keeps the services you rely on running.
Title
Degree, job title, last employer’s name.
They tell you where someone has been.
Look instead at: a problem they solved, in their own words.
Years
Ten years of experience can mean ten years of growth. Or one year, repeated ten times.
Look instead at: what they can do today that they couldn’t two years ago.
Spare time
We reward people who learn in the evenings and on weekends.
We pass over those who don’t have that time, and call it a lack of drive.
Look instead at: what they learn when they’re given the time.
Elsewhere
Best practice always seems to come from a better-known company, another country.
The local service that has quietly held up for years never gets studied.
Look instead at: what works here, and why.
Visibility
Whoever presents well passes for whoever works well.
The work that prevents problems stays invisible.
Look instead at: what wouldn’t have held up without them.
Once you name a filter, you can swap it for a better test.
The rest of the book gives you those tests: to spot builders, to grow them, and to become a better one.