Malcolm Gladwell: “Our Workforces Face a Major Mismatch Problem”
Thursday, May 8, 2008

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This morning at The New Yorker Conference, the infamously analytical Canadian (well, Canadian-raised) writer Malcolm Gladwell described what is wrong with the American workforce, calling the issue, “the mismatch problem.” Following an intro from TNY’s E-I-C David Remnick, Gladwell spent the majority of his keynote talking about the defunct method in which we as a society hire our employees. As usual, his examples were numerous and included the pro football pre-draft series of tests called the combine in which young kids complete a series of physical and intellectual tests in an attempt to measure their expected performance once they’re drafted. Gladwell pointed out that Dan Marino, among others, finished in the very bottom percentile in the tests, but still went on to become one of the greatest QB’s in the history of the game. He gave several other examples, including other pro sports, public school teachers’ evaluation/qualifications and police officers, “If 99% of what cops do these days is relational – solving disputes in a peaceful manner – then why are all cops still so beefy?” Gladwell went on, “Imposing these rigid hiring methods does not make sense because it’s a subjective thing. We just can’t seem to get over our desire to impose certainty on something is inherently uncertain.”

His point is that the demands of every profession have changed and when we are hiring people to enhance the quality of our companies, we must change the “tests” we impose upon them or continue to face mismatches.  

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