common sense.. nah! not so common

What's the easiest way to destroy a company? Fill it with people who lack common sense.

Heard it time and again.. from founders, leaders, hiring managers, job seekers, existing employees - cribbing about it. As it appears.. COMMON SENSE is disappearing

so.. I ran a search on linkedin.. and here's what I learnt.. In the last 24 hours, only 2 job descriptions worldwide explicitly mentioned "common sense" as a requirement. TWO. Out of THOUSANDS. Lets that sink in. All time view.. 28 results (including 8 which are with company name common sense")

And you know why? Because we took it for granted We just ASSUMED people had it. We thought it was baked in. But guess what? It’s NOT

You see it every day.

• Leaders making dumb calls that a 5th grader would question
• Employees needing a playbook for decisions that require basic judgment
• Companies writing policies to protect themselves from people with ZERO self-awareness
• Job Seekers facepalming themselves for the doings of the HR/ Recruiter
• Recruiter double facepalming themselves for the doings / decisions of the Hiring manager/ Org

We NEED to start hiring for common sense. But HOW DO YOU MEASURE IT?

• Can you put it in an assessment?
• Can you add it to an interview round?
• Can you score it out of 10? Can you? Can you really?? Maybe you can.. or maybe you are overestimating your calibration skill. And that’s exactly why it's so damn dangerous.

Maybe the companies listing common sense in JD are onto something that YOU cant even imagine.

Another interesting angle .. Common Sense was best observed in Skill worker segment not Knowledge workers segment. Yep.. Chew on that.. Why???

PS: Guess how many people listed common sense as a core skill in India? Images are there for reference and consumption..

Over and out!