đŹ Imagine this. You work in film. You made a movie. You were nominated for an Academy Award last year. You earned a great salary.
You want to make another movie. Itâs an idea youâve had for a while. You watch a lot of scenes from your favorite movies. Itâs gonna be like this. You start to edit your favorite film footage into montages of whatâs in your head. Yeah, like this.
You need actors.
Actors come. Actors read. Actors leave, rather, they are dismissed. Youâre demanding.
You have a list. Call these people back you say to your casting director Fred, I need to see them on film and I need to see them together. You three people.
Sure, Fred thinks. Itâs a good list. He likes it. But not that much. Fred adds some names. Thereâs one guy Fred really wants. You already worked with him. He was good. But you donât want all your movies to be with him. Fred wants him though. Fred hires him to be around and suggests that since the guy is here he can read with other people.
Sure you say.
The guy is fine. No, heâs good. The more he reads the more you like him (thanks Fred!). A woman that Fred added back is really good too. Really really good with this guy. Heâs smooth. She doesnât buy it. This is a good combo. Another guy that you dismissed and Fred added back is good too. This is a good trio. Is this the trio?
đ§ Your problem is an allocation problem. How do you allocate scarce resources (roles in your movie)?
Usually, we allocate by proxy. We do one thing that (might) map to the job we want. Interviews are like this.
âWe know from years of data that job interviews donât predict a whole lot, the main thing they predict is if I like you and thatâs not necessarily job relevant information.â Cade Massey
Other times we use proxies that are easy to quantify. Any industry where analytics has risen in prominence over the last two decades is like this: investing, sports, etc. The easy measures (hits) have given way to more predictive measures (on-base-percentage).
A third way to allocate is under the no-one-gets-fired-for-buying-IBM approach. Itâs where local incentives triumph over larger incentives.
A wildcard allocation idea from Rory Sutherland is to allocate in groups. Hire in groups, Sutherland says, and youâre bound to get diversity. Itâs like shopping, if youâre buying two tops do you get identical items or do you change the pattern, colors, cut, etc?
Another allocation idea is to include someone like Fred.
đŠ This is a good trio. Thereâs another trio too though. The other trio is serious. This trio is goofier. The other trio is your choice. This trio is Fredâs choice.
Weâll go with this trio.
You were George Lucas.
One thing thatâs great about Lucasâs experience is that he didnât have to answer to anyone, and avoided the buying-IBM angle.
About that other trio: Han Solo would have been played by Christopher Walken.
đ Resource allocation comes up in a lot of places. If time is included it comes up everywhere. Whatâs the best person to hire for this? Whatâs the best project to add money to? Whatâs the best way to spend my time?
The lesson from Star Wars this week - a belated May the fourth be with you - is to have a Fred that sprinkles in secondary choices for a second look.