If you’ve read these articles over the past few months, you may have noticed I regularly write about elements related to both Toyota and Stoicism.
It’s not so much that I’ve found these ways of the world and adopted them into my pattern of living.
More that in flittering across many subjects I find areas that align closely with who I am at my core. And as others have written so brilliantly, and in such depth, that becomes the hook to learn more.
While if these things are in me, they were in other people who similarly discovered them or, oh so many years ago, invented them.
They are part of the human condition - immutable truths that we can all learn from and apply successfully.
So when you see Buddhism is described as the pacifist’s Stoicism, it isn’t because one was inspired by the other, more that it came from the same place - within us.
Philosophy gets a bad rap as something that’s airy-fairy and the stuff of debate.
While some people point at Stoics as middle-aged white men with right-wing tendencies.
Talk about mass ad hominem, shooting the message for the messenger. And yes I’m a middle-aged white bloke, although one of those online thingamebobs said I was a progressive-liberalist, whatever that is.
But that’s a benefit of it being the human condition, rather than a named philosophy.
I’m confident anyone from any demographic can look within, without any learning, and find principles from something they think is irrelevant. Maybe they’ll call it Googlism.
Simon Sinek decided to call philosophy his Why. No one complains about his being a middle-aged white fella.
Like it or not, we all live to a philosophy - a system of ideas, principles and values from which we interact with the world.
Without a philosophy, which is the anchor to our lives, how can you know how to get to your destination, if you even know the destination that is right for you?
Look at the Toyota Way - the guiding system for how they run their business.
It consists of 4 steps. First philosophy, then process, then people, then problems.
Everything flows from philosophy.
And making cars is as practical an endeavour as you can get.
Now, the other thing you might have taken from these words is that I’m a technology sceptic.
I’ve written very little about recruitment tech, tools and systems.
Yet ironically, I’m passionate about technology and its applications. I’m thrilled to be alive at a time when AI might be around the corner (true AI not the branded automation stuff). When materials, energy, medicine, physics and the smallest particles in the universe are at the cusp of profound breakthroughs.
But in recruitment, we’re getting it all wrong.
It seems that we start with technology, and then run our businesses and approaches around it.
It’s completely skewiff, and we’ve lost sight, as an industry, of the philosophy of recruitment.
Voice notes! Video messages! Auto transcription! AI voice bots!
What problems do these solve? Better candidate responses. But why not just improve the message, so that the medium doesn’t have to stand out?
Or is it better that someone likes how the message was delivered, not what it said?
Every time it’s tech that papers over the cracks of poor process and weak foundations.
The more we take the lead from tech, such as AI rendering everything quicker, and more efficient, for scale and volume, the higher we move from the foundations that need fixing.
Well just look at schools in the UK this week if you want a metaphor for how that might go for candidate experience.
What happens instead if you lead with philosophy?
What is the immutable human condition from which we can attract, engage and onboard the people who can make a difference?
What is experience if not an existentialist paradigm?
Surely you can’t solve the problems with candidate experience only through technology, without a better philosophy.
What then could make up the philosophy of recruitment? Well, two are components you can see in Stoicism and Toyota - those can be applied throughout.
You can map external philosophy with your own and from there set your strategy for tackling recruitment.
For me I have fixed, almost pathological characteristics, that form part of my philosophy: fairness, realism, compassion, honesty, attnetion to detail, a terribly good sense of humour, a desire to continuously improve, and no interest in following the herd for the sake of the narrative.
Most of all, I fundamentally believe recruitment should be defined by human interactions and experiences, not just by transactions.
Get the philosophy right, then the process, then layer the right technology on top.
And so, I’ve found that what I intended as emails about actionable steps you can take to improve your recruitment. Actually became a series about philosophy and process, the foundation from which any recruitment can be improved.
If you want specific evidence of how I apply philosophy to recruitment, well there is always this archive.
Anyway, if you’re still here, don’t forget not to unsubscribe, and I’ll be back later in the week with No Problem, pt 3.
Thanks for reading.
Greg
p.s. I’m available for philosophical ramblings in the guise of filling your vacancies, improving your recruitment or helping you do it better yourselves. Get in touch.
p.p.s ‘attention’