The Visual8

Concept cars, runway fashion, and thought experiments share the same thing. They are beautifully impractical.

Beautiful because they show the art of the possible. They behave like polarized lenses. They turn up the contrast to make things crisp. They inspire conversation.

They are not realistic. Too difficult to manufacture. To costly to produce. To idealized to represent the complexity of reality.

However, they are valuable when we let go of expectations.

It is with this ethos, I offer this proposition.

Let’s hire talent for our company in the manner that the NBC program, The Voice operates.

The Voice has been on air for 20+ years. Over the course of a season, coaches select and refine vocal talent. Those coaches are in competition with each other. And in the process, viewers come to see contestants experiencing a career defining moment.

Most companies hire by conventional wisdom, which is more convention than wisdom. They follow a process established before they were born. A process which involves flowery job descriptions, impossible set of requirements, awkward first interviews, technical evaluation panels, subjective scoring… and hope.

Hope that the candidate’s closet is skeleton free. That the newbies ramp fast and friction-free. That they will not wander off after investments are made.

Our collective conscious is torn between hiring the familiar and the ache for diversity. We created diversity and inclusion programs because we see the value of reflecting all possible buyers, all possible thinking patterns.

And yet there’s fatigue about quotas on one side of the ledger. And there’s fatigue about privilege on the other side. It feels like we agree on the outcome: best talent should earn the spot. However, we cannot agree on the method to arrive at this destination.

Let’s consider a new approach.

The Voice is a play in three acts. In act one, we are introduced to new characters who have enough talent to get past the initial audition.

Act two is where they struggle to differentiate. But they have a mentor encouraging them through this hero’s journey. This mentor goes by the name of “coach” in the TV program.

Act three is the main stage where the audience exercises their own voice with a vote for their favorite singer. Last one standing has more votes than the others. We never know the vote count. That doesn’t matter.

Our enjoyment is to watch the rough become smooth. For heroes to dig deep to rise to the occasion. To feel their emotions of disappointment and their joy of success. It’s not unlike watching your home town football program. We wear the jersey because we are on the field in our minds.

Let’s break those three acts apart and see how they translate to the business world.

Act 1 – Blind Auditions

In The Voice, singers perform a song of their own selection with the coaches facing away from the artist.  With a punch of a button, coaches spin around when they recognize the spark. They sense that feature which sets the hopeful apart. And those coaches look for to build out winning team with a diverse set of skills.

For businesses this, would be a verbal presentation by the candidates about what they can accomplish. They showcase where they took inspiration. All of this would be without visuals. As in a zoom call without the camera on or profile picture added.

Act 2 – Battle Rounds

The contestants learn from their coaches. They compete by singing duets with the bitter irony that only one remains once the song is over. Even though the duet is meant to show as much cooperation as contrast. Coaches are as much judges in this phase. They are moving singers forward with one eye on the talent in their own team and talent in other teams.

In a business setting, we see leaders act as sponsors for top candidates. Their counseling not only fuels improvement, but aligns to the culture of the company. Candidates make progress in a highly visible venue. Coaches make the hard decision to move out some talent as the selection narrows.

Act 3 – Knockout Rounds

In The Voice, we experience live performances with greater production value. By this point, we know the backstory of the contestants. We are emotionally bought into these characters. The audience votes through these rounds by phone or internet. Results are sealed until the dramatic reveal. Ultimately only one earns the $100,000 purse and record contract.

This is crowd-sourcing the final selection.

In the business context, fellow employees act as engaged audience members. The employees look forward to the new hire because of the emotional connection to the backstory. The choice is durable because it has indoctrination built in. The coaching by elders ensures that.

Underlying factors of The Voice make it work.

Coaches are competing with each other. This adds advocacy where they would not have been otherwise. In the corporate world, interests diminish when the further away from the function being filled. This approach brings the whole company to bear, not just the hiring manager.

Personal stories pulls the audience in. We watch the contestants overcome adversity and see what drives them. We can forecast how future employees react in novel situations. We watch them act it out rather than answer the theoretical in an interview

Lastly, everyone wins.

Each of the contestants walk away with new skills and new relationships regardless of the outcome. Their network and net worth grows even if they don’t get the offer letter.

So why not try this where you are

By this point, you have thought up at least 10 reasons why this would never work.

Congratulations, you are normal. Which means that you are average, too.

Why not be abnormal? Above average?

Why not take a slice of The Voice back to the recruiters in your place of work? Why not embrace the beautifully impractical?

Maybe. Just maybe, the leap ahead is by letting go of expectations.