Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Digitization and Stephen Covey

Is your team good at its digitization tasks? We tend to think that anyone can learn how to create, manage and preserve digital assets, but that is not always true. It is both a science and an art. It requires creativity and attention to mundane/repetitive details. It sometimes requires being excited by tasks that, after a while, may seem quite boring.

Stephen R. Covey, who is best known for the book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People has an interview question that may help you discern if the people you are interviewing for a spot on your digitization team are indeed the right people. The question is -- From your earliest memory, what did you like doing that you did well? By having the person talk about this from work done in grade school through the present time, you'll figure out what type out worker this person will be on your team. Is the person better at dealing with technology or people? Better at dealing with details? Does the person enjoy repetitive tasks? Does the person's history show him/her as working well with others or alone? Of course, this should not be the only question you ask, but this question may give you the insight that you need and ensure that your team is good at its work.


3 comments:

Online Degree said...

Thanks for this suggestion from Stephen Covey... Do you happen to have the reference for this? Was it in his 7 Habits book? Please let me know. I'd love to read the rest of what he had to say on the topic.

Jill Hurst-Wahl said...

I'm sorry that I don't remember where this Stephen Covey question came from. ("From your earliest memory, what did you like doing that you did well?") It is not from the book, but from an article or interview on finding good employees.

Online Degree said...

I tried searching on Google to see if any references would come up, but couldn't find any. Either way, it is still a great idea. Thanks for posting it.