Job Story - The Value of Soft Skills

FastCompany.com features an Edutopia.org video of Randy Nelson, Dean of Pixar University speaking about his company's HR values.

First, Pixar follows 2 core principles of improv that build teamwork and increase productivity:

1. Accept every offer. (a virtue also mentioned in Malcolm Gladwell's Blink)
2. Make your partner look good.

When hiring, Pixar looks for:
A. People who are good at something.--->mastery in anything is a good predictor of performance
B. People who had failed and recovered - haven't avoided failure.
C. Breadth- "people who are more interested than they are interesting": "no one trick ponies."
D. Collaboration: whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Have you overlooked the importance of soft skills in your customers? They are a complement to education and experience.

The bulk of many direct services budgets go towards training to meet what Randy calls "depth-based" and "resume-based" hiring. These expenditures are frequently critiqued by pointing out that someone with the technical skills to do a job may find it difficult to get a job or keep it due to poor people skills: not being able to sell oneself in an interview, not cooperating, displaying a bad attitude, etc. Consider also that highly skilled individuals are competing against peers and possibly superiors. Even they need an edge to set themselves apart.

Your customers can prepare for Pixar-style HR screening by:
1. Identify and develop a strength.
1A. Relate the strength to work.

2. Establish coping strategies and support systems for dealing with failure.
2A. Build a track record of perseverance.

3. Move beyond comfort zones.
3A. Provide challenges and set high expectations.

4. Exercise teamwork, communication, conflict resolution, diversity, etc. as much as possible.
4A. Use mentoring, job coaching, group therapy, ROPES, and similar activities.