Why You Should Hire for Learning Potential, Not Experience
As an entrepreneur with almost 20 years of experience building and managing teams, I have faced many challenges and opportunities in the ever-changing business landscape. One important factor for success is having the right people on your team. But how do you find and attract the best talent in a competitive and uncertain market?
You might think that the answer is to look for candidates with the most relevant and impressive experience for the role. After all, experience is a proxy for competence, right? Well, not necessarily. In fact, I would argue that hiring based on experience alone is a short-sighted and risky strategy that could limit your growth potential and innovation capacity.
Why? Because experience is not the same as learning potential. Experience is what you have done in the past, while learning ability is what you can do in the future. Experience is a fixed and finite resource that is context-dependent and domain-specific, while the ability to learn is a dynamic and infinite resource that can be transferable and adaptable across different situations and domains.
In today’s fast-paced and complex world, many of the problems and opportunities that companies will face are likely to be unknown and unprecedented. In these cases, it is important to have people who can learn quickly, adapt flexibly and extrapolate creatively from their previous experiences, not people who rely on outdated or irrelevant knowledge and skills. I believe businesses should seek people who have a growth mindset, who are curious rather than complacent.
How can you identify and assess such people? Here are some tips and suggestions that I have learned from my own experience as a hiring manager and a leader.
1. Look beyond the résumé.
A résumé can tell you what a candidate has done but not how they did it, why they did it or what they learned from it. Instead of focusing on titles, degrees and certifications, dig deeper into the stories, challenges and achievements behind them. Ask open-ended and behavioral questions that elicit the candidate’s thought process, problem-solving skills and learning strategies. For example, you can ask them to tell you about a time when they faced a new or unfamiliar problem. How did they approach it? What did they learn from it? How did they apply their learning to other situations?
2. Use realistic and relevant scenarios.
A good way to test a candidate’s learning potential is to present them with a scenario that simulates a real or hypothetical situation that they might encounter in the role. The scenario should be challenging, but not impossible, and should require the candidate to apply their existing knowledge and skills as well as be able to learn new information and skills on the spot. This can allow you to observe how the candidate handles ambiguity and uncertainty and how they demonstrate curiosity, creativity and resilience. Some questions you can ask candidates include “How would you go about learning about a new skill?," "What resources would you use?," "How would you validate your assumptions and hypotheses?" and "How would you measure your progress and results?”
3. Seek diversity and complementarity.
Learning potential is not a one-dimensional or uniform trait. Different people have different strengths, weaknesses, preferences and styles when it comes to learning. Some people are more analytical, while others are more intuitive. A person might be a visual or a verbal learner, or they may be more self-directed versus collaborative. Rather than looking for a single or ideal profile, aim for a diverse and complementary team that can leverage each other’s learning potential and create a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
When assessing this dimension, consider asking questions like, “How do you prefer to learn?," "What are your learning goals and challenges?," "How do you seek and give feedback?" and "How do you collaborate and communicate with others who have different learning styles or backgrounds?”
Hiring for learning potential, not experience, may not be an easy or straightforward task. It typically requires a shift in mindset, a change in process and a commitment to investing in your people’s development and growth. But the benefits are worth it. In my experience, they can lead to a team that is more agile, more innovative and more prepared for the future.