What are you testing? (and why)

What you test for defines what you get. That sounds obvious enough.

If you test for speed, you’re going to get people who are good at responding quickly, not those who carefully assess things slowly (or who are prone to overthink).

And screening based on adaptability will no doubt get you people who are more adaptable, while weeding out people who are intractable or less-yielding (not that those are necessarily bad things, because they aren’t).

One last example: Giving preference to people who are ‘well rounded’ might make for more diversity…but it will inevitably leave out people who are singularly-focused and perhaps astonishingly(!) great a one or two useful things.

There’s no question that you get what you test for. Far more nuanced and consequential to discern is ‘what are you testing for, and, why are you testing for it to begin with?’