A job description can lay out a specific set of tasks to be done. But unless the people from Human Resources are going to come into your department, spend days talking to everyone so that they really understand each task that the job entails, and then prepare a unique job description for each job, they will have to use generic phrases such as “develop, coordinate, and advise staff regarding program policy.” That phrase isn’t wrong. It just isn’t helpful.

Frederick Winslow Taylor, the father of scientific management, believed in “task management.” He believed that management needed to define exactly how each job should be done. Thus, Taylor told managers to specify precisely each of the tasks that a job entailed and then to select the individual with the formal credentials that best fit those tasks.

And you wondered where job descriptions came from? Frederick Winslow Taylor still lives. No one has been able to kill him off. You won’t either.

Keep Your Eye on the Prize

So first, make sure that the right people apply — people who understand the challenge of creating environmental partnerships and who have experience orchestrating such collaborative ventures. You certainly want to let the environmental community know about the position, but don’t prematurely limit your search. You may find a strong candidate to be someone who has organized a particularly effective social-service partnership.

Obviously, some technical knowledge about environmental issues would be a plus. But it could also contain a minus. Every individual with some experience in environmental policy will also come with some reputational baggage; each such individual may have taken a stand (or merely made an offhand remark) that offends one of your important stakeholders. So, in looking for candidates, cast a very wide net.

Once you have identified a small group of candidates, have a long, serious talk with each of them. Explain what you and the governor want accomplished. Explain the intricacies and subtleties of the assignment. Spend your valuable time talking with the serious candidates, not rewriting job descriptions.

Finally, to test whether these individuals “get it,” ask each to explain what in the past he or she has done to create a working partnership of people with conflicting interests. And check out each story; determine which of the candidates has, through past work, demonstrated the subtle skills necessary to indeed create such partnerships. This is the individual who will really have the talents that you need — the person who has already shown that he or she understands how to do what you need done.

Rely on Your Staff

You want your new director of environmental partnerships to focus on producing results. West Dakota needs this person precisely because the existing institutions aren’t working. But you decided not to tear everything down and start from scratch. You knew that would take forever — and even then might not produce anything of value. So, instead, you chose to find a way to work within the existing institutional arrangements, but to get the people in these institutions to think and behave differently. That’s why you are looking for a director of environmental partnerships.

Take the same approach to filling this job. Don’t try to tear everything down and start from scratch. That will take forever — and even then you might not really change how the state’s personnel system works. Instead, find a way to work within the existing personnel structure. And in doing so, you had best take Carla Everett’s advice.

Agree or disagree? If you think you have a better way to deal with this month's Manager's Choice dilemma, or would like to expand on Bob Behn's approach, share your thoughts with other readers here. Send your solution to mailbox@governing.com. Please include your name, location, government or business title or job description, and a daytime phone number (for verification purposes).

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