How to hire for Creative Intelligence
Creative Intelligence is an essential quality for anyone joining Sense Worldwide or The Sense Network. It’s not something you can just identify through direct questions, you have to observe and see evidence for it in people’s thoughts and actions.
For any new hire at Sense, Creative Intelligence is something we look to explore throughout our 4 Step hiring process.
Courtney recently wrote about The Five Traits Of Creative Intelligence, here I show you we hire for it.
Someone who is creatively intelligent can …
- Meet Challenges With An Open Mind
- Have The Confidence To Step Outside Of The Norm
- Break Traditional Habits Of Problem Solving and Go Against Established Conventional Wisdom
- Embrace The Anxiety Of Ambiguity
- Take Intelligent Risks
Let’s explore what these mean in more detail…
Meet Challenges With An Open Mind
Do they approach a challenge by asking a lot of questions? Or do they immediately begin thinking in terms of solutions? Do they recognise their own biases and seek to mitigate these?
At the outset of any innovation brief there is so much we can’t hope to know or be able to anticipate that maintaining an open mind is an essential trait to demonstrate.
We have a mini mantra at Sense, “we yet don’t know the answer but know how to find out”. This goes to the heart of what we look for in anyone joining the business.
If people talk about how curious they are, we ask them to give examples. If people say they “never stop asking questions”, we might explore how they handled a response which jarred with their view of the world.
Many people say (and indeed believe) they have an open mind. We want them to show us how they put this into practice.
Have The Confidence To Step Outside Of The Norm
Do they have a strong opinion on a particular matter? Are they prepared to voice this opinion? Do they believe in something others might find controversial? Are they able to make a compelling argument for their position?
It’s one thing to believe in something, it’s another to make the case for it. Not necessarily with the objective of persuading others that your view is the right view.
We seek people who have a desire to contribute to constructive debate and ensure that alternative views are heard and well represented. This is the type of mindset that ensures left-field ideas get due attention, that an innovation opportunity that might initially seem crazy is fully considered and developed if it shows potential.
Break Traditional Habits Of Problem Solving and Go Against Established Conventional Wisdom
Have they ever just torn up the rule book and done something in a way that hadn’t been tried before? Are they more likely to ask for permission or beg forgiveness?
We seek people who have conviction and a willingness to break conventional ways of doing things. We have found that asking the permission / forgiveness question is a telling way to suss out people’s convention-challenging potential.
When we ask for examples, some people might be able to speak about a single occasion when they really did things their own way. Others, who really embody this mindset, show us it’s a way of life for them; it shapes how they view the world and how they respond to it.
People who challenge conventional ways of doing things are the type of people who move idea forward. They can spot opportunities to shake things up, they can reframe a challenge, they can foresee solutions that no one else might consider. To them, they are not just a hammer and the world is not a nail.
Embrace The Anxiety Of Ambiguity
Identifying people who can not only handle ambiguity but also thrive in uncertain situations is not something you can easily do by asking direct questions.
During the initial questionnaire (Step 1 in our hiring process), applicants to Sense are asked to tell us “something that you believe that others might find controversial”. During the remote assessment, we then ask people to argue against this position.
But their explicit response to this question is just one part of the picture.
- The instructions people receive are sufficient but brief. Those that can handle ambiguity tend not to need to ask any further questions.
- The assessment is timed, and we deliberately don’t give people too long to respond. Those that can handle ambiguity are also able to synthesise their arguments and present a coherent point of view in the time available.
- We ask people to argue against their preferred position. Those that can handle ambiguity tend to be people who can put themselves in another person’s shoes and see the merits of their views.
And of course, some people do struggle.
Some applicants ask a lot of questions to ‘clarify’ our expectations. Some applicants ask us to tell them again what they should do. Some applicants return their submissions late. Some applicants make a lot of errors in their writing. Some applicants tell us they didn’t enjoy the experience.
This process gives us a good understanding of how comfortable someone is with ambiguity.
Take Intelligent Risks
Do they have a side project? Have they dropped out of a course that wasn’t the right fit for them? Have they made a radical switch in their career path?
These are some of the questions we ask ourselves when someone first applies to join Sense Worldwide. The first questionnaire applicants fill out, explicitly asks about side projects and we make clear that university or college “drop-outs” are welcome on our jobs page.
The initial questionnaire gives us clues as to whether people might just have what it takes to thrive at Sense while also pointing to the areas we might dig deeper on during the latter stages of the application process.
Join us!
If this is a process you respect, admire or are just curious about, we’re hiring for a stellar Senior Consultant at the moment. Apply here.
Chat with us!
If you’d like to continue the conversation, please do drop us an email at hello@senseworldwide.com.
