243: Business Saboteurs

<p>It sounds quite obvious not to hire people who are dangerous.  The problem is people can have a nice resume, can sound quite articulate in interviews and we buy this false persona.   They can also have a lot of energy, can be quite forthright and outgoing.  They are often brimming with confidence and self-belief.  On the surface, it all looks fine.  After hiring them the issues come out though in dribs and drabs. </p> <p> </p> <p>They often have a weak association between their mouth and their brain.  They shoot their mouth off, with great vigor, babbling stuff and easily overwhelm others around them.  Somewhere along the line they have discovered they can dissemble their true ability and baffle people with pap. The content of their babbling becomes the future pain point for the organisation.  Their mouths are too fast for their brains. Stream of consciousness thinking probably works better in literature, than it does in business.</p> <p> </p> <p>I was facilitating a brainstorming session for a client and observed a painful reality.  Loud, aggressive, active, dim people can do major damage to companies.  They compensate for their intellectual inferiority complex by becoming very vocal, dominant and assertive.  Considered, steady, sensible people allow these dangerous types air to breathe, because they are polite, fair, want to see everyone contributing and are open to a variety of ideas. </p> <p> </p> <p>This is fine in the idea generation stage, what we call “green light thinking” and that is exactly what is needed.  By the way, when you are doing brainstorming, don’t mix idea creation and idea evaluation together at the same time.  Separate them out.  The problems arise though when we get to the idea parsing stage or “red light thinking”. </p> <p> </p> <p>Here the need to be dominant surges up in these dangerous people and they push their ideas, not through the value of the contribution, but through the force of their personality.  This is why it is often better to have an outside facilitator, who can be obl