Rules Orientation: Does Your Candidate Need the Ops Manual or Would They Rather Wing It?

I put a dollar in one of those change machines. Nothing changed. 
~George Carlin

Fight Club was the beginning, now it's moved out of the basement, it's called Project Mayhem. 
-Tyler Durden 

Does Your Candidate need the ops manual or would they rather wing it?

It's a more important question than you might think - I call the whole area "Rules Orientation", and it measures whether the candidate being measured seeks change or stability, needs rules to cope with the world around them, or has the ability to adapt to situations on the fly.

High rules people dig structure.  If you're a freak show of a company, be careful.  The high rules candidate belongs at a utility, or in a position where it's all mapped out.

Low rules people are down with the sickness - they love the chaos.  Having no set plan to deal with what they're encountering doesn't bother them - they'd rather be in control of what the situation will become.

You can ask a low rules person to help you build the Operations manual that the high rules people need.  They'll enjoy that process, but be prepared - they'll be ready to bolt as soon as you start holding them accountable to following the manual.  It doesn't matter that they wrote it, they need change.

Don't treat a high or low rules candidate like you would anyone else.  They have different needs, and if you mismatch them to the opportunity in question, you'll have churn within a year.

Comments

[Matt Landrum]

Nice "Disturbed" reference.

[Kris]

Totally agree. The trick is finding this out before the hire. It's easy to see once the on-boarding process is underway, but then it's a little late. I'm a wing-it kind of gal in a wing-it organization so it is something I need to pay close attention to during the entire recruiting process.

I also liked the "Disturbed" reference.