I read a few blogs on a very regular basis and this week I want to share with you a really great post from one of them. Conor Neill, on his blog The Rhetorical Journey, recently featured a video by Randy Nelson, the Dean of Pixar University, where shared how the PROOF of a portfolio is significantly more valuable than the PROMISE of a resume.

The things that you'll read below are truly some of the most powerful tips that I've ever read or heard and if you're in any kind of leadership capacity within a business, you absolutely need to read this at least once (and I'd encourage you to read it more than once) and then take the time to watch Randy's video. This is incredibly insightful - I hope you agree!

1. Depth (in any area) - Randy believes that the best predictor of ability to master any one area is if somebody has already mastered another area. It is more likely that someone who has achieved mastery in golf will achieve mastery as a Pixar artist or programmer than any set of pre-existing talent as an artist or programmer. Mastery requires discipline more than talent. Discipline requires humility. In the highly important NASA search for the astronauts to travel to the moon they were looking for mastery after some form of setback. They placed a huge value on people who had failed and recovered. In doing new things (buzz word "Innovation") the key skill is "failure recovery".
2. Breadth - He says they look for interested people more than interesting people. People who are broadly curious rather than just "different". The key question is does this person "amplify me"? Can this person take my ideas and return them with passion?
3. Communication - Communication requires a process of translation. When a techie speaks to an artist she must speak in language that the artist understands. Randy says that nobody can be considered articulate, because the only success of communication is that the listener can say "I understand you".
4. Collaboration - This is far beyond simple cooperation. Cooperation is for assembly lines [e.g. Ford Model T production workers]. Knowledge work requires the ability for team members to amplify each other - creating truly connected human beings.

The video for this is about 10 minutes long and it's worth the time. You can view it by clicking on the link below.

http://bit.ly/3WfROl