“Hire for character, train for skill” is a pretty common approach to recruitment, especially in fields with a really human face, and especially when there’s a very intentional intake of young graduates new to the profession. You could ask applicants a question in writing or at an interview about their strengths of character and how they work with others… or you could create the conditions for them to show you.

In these workshops we asked each applicant some big questions about their philosophy, their character, and why things that are important to the school are important to them. Doing it this way makes it harder to “study for.” In several cases, these have been brand new schools needing to assemble their very first team of teachers – this process was about far more than experience, skills and qualification. These schools were looking for a deep, genuine character fit at every level.

We also asked questions about the “x-factor” they bring – how will this applicant make their mark on the school? It was important to these schools that they recruited well-rounded people who connected with the learners, families, and community with as much dedication as they engaged with the mandates of the job. This is something that’s incredibly difficult to reveal in a conventional interview.

Beyond the individual contributions, we invited participants in groups to show how their strengths, interests, and uniqueness played together, by building a landscape. A collaborative experience like this, when approached through play creates a moment in which participants forget where they are. This means “interview nerves” get sidelined… and so does a front.

As an additional round, we explored the applicants’ relationships with opportunity and adversity, asking them what happens in a school year that might support or interfere with their ability to contribute and collaborate to their fullest. Bringing this into another landscape revealed their ability to be resourceful, to adapt, and to respond to challenges on their feet.

Two big highlights stand out from these experiences.

One was a school principal sidling up to me during the first collective play exercise, turning their back to the group, and whispering to me “JOEL! They’re just acting like themselves!” The group was well and truly in a state of collective flow, and operating as if they were already a team, operating with their full personalities right out front. (for better or worse!)

The other has been the emails I’ve received from unsuccessful applicants thanking me for an experience that empowered them at their NEXT interview. Knowing full well that there were more people in the room than there were places on offer, but that everyone in the room deserved to be there, I wanted to design an experience that would function like a high-end professional discourse workshop so it would be valuable as a learning and self-reflection experience for everyone, whether or not they received an offer for a position.