Jon,

Thanks, a very thought provoking post. I have written several times on my blog (www.peterborner.com) about organisational culture and how easy it is to upset the balance. I have even gone as far as to opine that it is better to walk away from a superstar in favour of somebody a little less talented if they are a better fit for the organisations culture. I have also written about a concept that I call "a self-healing culture" where the team will assimilate or reject newcomers based on their alignment with the team's culture. In my firm, we have adjusted our hiring process to ensure we keep cultural fit as a key requirement for any new hire. We do this by looking for evidence of four key behaviours (Driving for Results, Working Together, Making Great Decisions and Doing it Right.) Clearly we don't always make the right hiring decision but the culture is such that it will either adapt positively or reject the newcomer and self-heal.

I particularly liked the final question you suggested: "How will your presence change this role and our organization?" I am about to go off and discuss this with the team. I think that it might be the next step in the evolution of our recruitment process!

Since I take recruitment so seriously, I thank you for this insight.

Peter