An excerpt from Iain Mackinnon’s blog (www.peoplemanagement.co.uk):

“If you’re casting Hamlet, do you take the same approach as “regular” recruiters? A play-it-safe, same-as-last time recruiter would look at David Tennant’s CV and conclude that his spell as Doctor Who was about as irrelevant as it gets to finding a great stage Hamlet.

But you’d have been wrong: Tennant’s Hamlet was widely acclaimed by audiences and critics alike. And surely that’s because he was coming to the role fresh, bringing all his other experience, skill and talent to bear on the creative process of seeing Hamlet anew.

That has nothing to do with the quality of the job description for the role, or the person spec, or the care with which you design the process. And everything to do with clarity about what you really want.”