Book Review: The Rare Find

"The Rare Find: Spotting Exceptional Talent before Anyone Else". George Anders

This is a book about identifying talent and predicting high performance.  It takes examples from a number of activities: from sport, the military and business. 

One of its central premises is that this is a difficult task, in which failure is the norm.  Anders also suggests that adopting conventional methods leads to conventional, unremarkable, results.  He therefore examines what some of the top institutions -whose success depends on identifying people who might have extraordinary abilities - do to judge  ability and predict high performance.

Anders suggests that "rare talent often emerges in unexpected ways" , which makes talent spotting a search for hidden virtues.  The most significant of these, the author believes is resilience.  He looks at how the Marines seek to identify this, and concludes that there is not a single reliable test, but that it is the sum of a large number of small judgements, many of which are not the main focus of the selection test. Many of these tests are designed to identify signs of laziness or selfishness.  Such as who takes the first food when the isn't enough for everyone.  Or who does the most when asked to clear up equipment after an exhausting physical test.

The problem is based on the difficulty of predicting the future from the evidence of the past.  The author suggests that standardised methods of selection identify only conventional performers.  He suggests the concept of the "jagged cv", which should be read "upside down". These are the candidates whose past is less orthodox,but might show glimpses of the capacity to do something remarkable.  This might be evidence of unusual achievements or approaches, or the combination of personal qualities that suggest the capacity to learn and grow into a "transformative genius"

"You look for effort people.  It makes a huge difference how dedicated they are"

He believes that great talent selection transcends formulaic attempts to pick the best CV.

The author distinguishes between what he describes as "talent that shouts" and "talent that whispers". He sees more potential in the latter, and cites examples of Basketball scouts identifying players who are not the stars of the college game, but go on to successful professional careers long after the early developers have faded away. There are examples of how those scouts operate, looking for small signs of behaviour that indicates superior dedication and willingness to work at becoming better.  Such as the intensity with which players pay attention during time outs.

Examples are provided from the talent selection processes of organisations such as "Teach for America", FBI, Facebook, Google, professional Football and Basketball, as well as the CEO searches of major corporations.  In all cases, the record of conventional selection methods is poor, leading him to the conclusion that past successes are not a reliable predictor of exceptional future performance.  He also suggests that no single test can achieve this.  Rather, identification of talent is the sum of a large number of small judgements about occasions on which candidates have shown undue resilience and persistence in the face of difficulty.  He suggests that it is common practice to weed out candidates who are unusual, and whose past record might constitute a risk.  However, he suggests that a better recruitment approach is to look at "what might go right" with a candidate from beyond the mainstream, rather than be driven by concern for what might go wrong.  Too much concern for fitting in with current practice results in stagnation for an organisation, as nothing changes or evolves.

Interestingly, he believes that really talented people are seeking challenge, not comfort and are driven by the desire to be involved in something big, different and demanding. 

There are considerable implications for schools recruiting teachers, coaches and able pupils.  The principal one is that conventional, straightforward, simple tests are unlikely to be consistently successful, and that measuring performance is less effective than assessing the personal qualities that might lie at the root of future successes.  This presupposes that the success criteria of future contributions to an organisation can be accurately identified, but suggests that these lie not in the evidence of past achievement, but in the character of the candidate.  The challenge is to find the tests and judgements that can measure this.

Neil Rollings