Enterprise patterns and architecture

We all unfortunately need to visit a doctor from time to time when we do not feel well. He examines us, he makes a diagnosis and prescribes medications. It rarely comes to our mind to ask him what is the active ingredient of the medication he prescribed to us or if he did well at school during his medical studies. Because we are not doctors, medical matters are beyond our reach and consequently we trust him if we want to be treated and cured.

Of course if we are not happy with our doctor for whatever reason, we can pick another one that we will eventually trust or we can decide to rely on medical websites instead and do some auto-diagnosis and auto-medication. We could also acquire medical expertise ourselves but then the learning curve would be very long and the treatment and cure will most probably come too late …

The fact is that when a so important subject as our health is at stake, we have no choice but to trust and to rely on somebody else’s expertise. This is equally true in enterprises needing a particular set of skills not available in house.

But then how to hire the right person if the company does not have the means to assess his/her competencies upfront ? The most common answer is to have the candidate assessed by a third party who knows the subject (external expert, head hunter, …) or to rely on word of mouth from acquaintances (friends, professional relations) i.e. in both cases trusted external parties …

Once hired, the expert will have to demonstrate his abilities by achieving pre-agreed results which will constitute a tangible proof. But how the expert achieves them remains beyond reach unless he is required and able to provide detailed explanations on how results are achieved which, by the way, is a good way to build in-house expertise …

In summary, when a specific expertise is not available in house, the hiring process tends to assess a candidate competencies indirectly i.e. by relying on third parties: person, selection company, head hunter, references, previous employers, …  that the hiring company trusts. The tangible evidence that the expert is indeed an expert is his ability to produce the desired results and to communicate efficiently on how he achieved them.

A successful professional collaboration always starts with and boils down to trust.