Happy New Year!

I had the opportunity to spend some time reading during the week between Christmas and New Years. I´m not much for novels, but do find the nonfiction sort of "how to" books to be most enjoyable. One of the books that I had the pleasure of reading is a New York Times Business Bestseller called The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki.

I´ve always been fascinated by how decisions are made and this book sheds some new light on how the "right" decision can sometimes be best arrived at by paying more close attention to the "collective wisdom" of crowds. The author cites many examples (Google, CIA, ABC, US Military, NASA, and others) of how a process that aggregates the local knowledge and private information of individuals into a collective whole can result in better decision making.

I mention this book as a possible resource for staffing/recruitment executives because it will leave you quite simply...better educated. Better able to put together effective interview teams, better able to uncover the best candidate, and better able to retain the high performers. It will present you with a strategy that can help position your staffing team for a productive 2006.

So..... join the crowd...and read the book.