Comments on: How to Map a Memeplex

By: Shyam Kumar

Shyam Kumar — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 06:46:12 +0000

Bob,

Wonder if you may have explored the possibility of using something called “Concept Maps” to explore & map out the “NoCV” and a more generally to explore the “memeplex” of any idea / process / situation.

Info on Concept Maps here at: http://cmap.ihmc.us/

With Best Regards

Shyam

By: What is systems thinking? (Part II) « quantum shifting

What is systems thinking? (Part II) « quantum shifting — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 06:39:50 +0000

[…] which I quite like, and try hiring without relying on a traditional CV as your safety blanket (the #noCV alternative). I tend to go along with Bob when he says that “job interviews suck”. How you hire […]

By: olaflewitz

olaflewitz — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 06:28:33 +0000

Thanks for getting practical on this, Bob!

Love the mindset match approach. Paul has an important point, though — and “skillsplex” sounds cool. 🙂

This would get so much easier for all parties if we would start stating our actual needs (“we need someone who helps cleaning up our 10yo legacy mess of Java, VB and something loosely resembling php”) instead of posting wishful dreams (“we are looking for the perfect Java expert with excellent SQL…”).

Then potential candidates could a) check if they have passion (remember that means suffering in Greek) for that particular challenge, that particular pain in the system. And b) we could much easier visualise and talk about the skillsplex idea that Paul introduced…

I highly recommend Thom Bradford’s presentation on organisational honesty on this topic: http://www.kode4food.it/careers-presentation/#/

By: changearc

changearc — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 16:45:20 +0000

Back in “the day” when XML was new I actually wrote my CV in XML and then did an XSLT transform for it back to a doc – I distributed the XML & CV (boy was a geek back then! ;). I eventually abandoned this after a year or so as no one was really interested. I’m wondering if you could do similar, so you have a base “information set” that you can then slice & dice..? I suppose that HTML 5 will do all that and more – looking forward to see what you come up with.

Recently, I’ve been thinking of “modelling myself” in UML (still used in most places I work ;). Archimate could be interesting also as it’s a “softer notation” with symbols for Goals, Principles etc…

By: Martin Swan

Martin Swan — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 16:13:06 +0000

I have been interviewing prospective employees using NLP Meta Programs based questions. It is interesting to watch and hear the reactions of those who were expecting a competency based or other corporate style interview. This system of interviewing could be adapted and applied at the start of the process. The questions used were arrived at by using ‘Strategy elicitation’ on staff who were already very effective in the role, they were identified by measuring Flow and then investigating.
Thanks for an interesting and stimulating post.
Martin @internalchoice

By: Carlo Kruger (@ironicbuddha)

Carlo Kruger (@ironicbuddha) — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 16:06:06 +0000

I think the idea of representing a memeplex needs some representation of foundational and ancillary ideas (for example, while eating pork is a no-no in e.g. Judaism it’s not really a defining characteristic of the memeplex). So I think at the least that might be useful, beyond just the frequency count of represented by a Wordle. Although I guess that would be starting to impose an analytic mindset on the memeplex which may not be desirable.
Memeplex’s are also a function of their environment which I would also be interested in (I guess the phenotypic approach).

By: gunnarahlberg (@gunnarahlberg)

gunnarahlberg (@gunnarahlberg) — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 14:23:51 +0000

Great post, NoCV is getting better and better explained.

I’ve got a suggestion as an alternative to “Selecting applicants” – setup video recording interviews where applicants are not prepared to the question. Ask to answer a set of questions and evaluate before sending the interviewee to a meeting. To technical? Maybe. But it would save time from me as an interviewer

The video is to see facial expressions – how does the applicant repsond to a question such as “we have x and ask you for a suggestion” or “How do you implement a Y?”. As a interviewer in actual meeting, I can often tell after a few simple questions if the applicant is a match. To have this discussions in a one-way interaction would certainly speed up the selection, save the applicant from spending time on a interview that actually ended after the first question.

Thanks for sharing!
Gunnar

By: Paul M Boos

Paul M Boos — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 11:59:31 +0000

Nice idea; though depending on what type of work the person may be performing, some skills may need to wind up in a corresponding skillsplex. For example, if I have a legacy code base in Java and I have had thorny problems, I’d like to know the person has dealt with some similar issues. Now she may have dealt with these kinds of issue sin say .Net and has only some rudimentary Java understanding, so again a keyword search on a resume isn’t going to reveal her talents, but certainly some questions along the technical nature of the work could help me identify her as a suitable person to open a conversation with…

The memeplex concept is a great addition as this what would tell me whether she could step up to learning Java and work with the team enough to be effective.

Cheers,
Paul