080822 Idealization

(August 22, 2008) Every morning, I take a five mile walk around the perimeter of Schollenberger Park. It’s a wetlands area with 200 varieties of bird. This morning, I saw a juvenile mountain lion.

I am a huge fan of tropical birds and love big white flying things. The park obliges me with swans, herons, egrets and American Pelicans. Daily visits give me a growing inisght into the behavior of a range of species.

One of the interesting things that I have been learning is that birds imitate each other. In some cases, herons eat in ways that are characteristic of pelicans. Though one species is known for a certain behavior, a different bird will do the exact same thing under some circumstances. Crows act like hawks when the wind is right.

The other thing I notice is my tendency to idealize. I like to imagine perfect instances of the wildlife I encounter. I’m always somewhat surprised when the reality is a little (or a lot) different.

The ducks around Schollengerger are a great example. They line the banks of the pond. When they swim, it’s a graceful paddle. I never cease to be astonished when I hear the slurping noises in the paddy-like parts of the marsh. These lovely little creatures feed themselves by wallowing in the mud, mouth first. They scoop it up, gargle with it and spray it out.

I prefer my more idyllic version.

American Pelicans are beautiful from afar. Pure white elegance with an orange bill and distinct black markings on the wings (you can only see it when they fly), they are fun to watch and imagine.

Up close, things are a little nastier. These are water birds. Their fathers, always damp, are smelly and dirty. They, too, scoop mud in search of a bug or two. An older Pelican tends to have the most unlovely charateristics of a worn out teddy bear.

Still, when I look, the first thing I see is my idealized version.

In Recruiting, we tend to idealize both jobs and candidates.

Great writers are often unpleasnt cubicle mates. Brilliant workers rarely make effective managers. Great managers predictably have monstrous egos. Well appointed offices can feel like prisons. Certain desirable traits always have a balancing set of the undesirable. Really nice people are often terrible at their jobs.

But, we skip and jump happily through the selection process acting as if the beautiful Pelican  is the bird we’re moving into the bedroom. Sometimes, we even try to run background checks to make sure that it isn’t smelly.