Interviewing people to join your digital transformation program can be exhausting.

These programs can be huge. The sheer number of candidates and their CVs (sourced both internally and externally) take considerable time and effort to review. It can feel as if each CV blurs into the next one.

Depending on the shape of your transformation, this blurring effect can become worse.

If there is a heavy technical scope to the work, you can be faced with a wall of CVs that all have the same technical certifications, experiences, language, and formatting. This feeling can also apply to many different non-technical project roles that are common on digital transformation programs. It is hard to differentiate candidates and here we approach the art of interviewing people.

I am not going to provide you with a generic set of tips on how to interview candidates – the digital world is already littered with this advice (usable or not).

Instead, I am going to showcase a technique I use when interviewing candidates for digital transformation programs. It is counterintuitive but it works. I will provide two short case studies to show you why it works.

Let’s set the scene.

You are part of an interview panel of three people. Your candidate has been shortlisted and skills qualified in a first round interview performed by a talent agency or your internal people and culture team. This is now the second interview and will determine whether you choose to make an offer.

The interview begins.

My question to you is, when you interview a candidate, who do you watch?

I am certain that many of you will say you provide your full attention to the candidate being interviewed. I don’t. I am watching somewhere else…

I watch the other interview panel members.

Why do I do this?

I do this for two reasons:

1. Usually, I know the other interview panel members more than I know the candidate. I know how they think, build relationships, what they expect, and how they engage.
2. What I am looking for from every candidate for a digital transformation program is someone who can influence, build relationships, create energy, and adapt.

So, what am I looking for during the interview?

I am looking for evidence of interview panel members, who are typically tired from conducting many interviews, changing how they are engaging. These changes can be positive or negative. I want to see the candidate transform the formulaic process of interviewing into a conversation and create energy.

If there is no change or negative change in the interview panel members during or post the interview – I’m not interested in the candidate.

My rationale is maybe a little harsh, but very simple – if a candidate cannot summon energy in a focused interview, something that they have likely had time to plan and prepare for, how will they be able to do this daily in the program? The reality is, they can’t.

Let me show you two case studies of how this has worked in practice.

Case Study 1

We were hiring to fill several open roles on a large transformation program. It was early days, and these roles were key pillars in terms of documenting the approach and helping firm up the future team. These roles would eventually lead different teams for the duration of the multi-year transformation program.

The interview panel was comprised of three men, two of whom were actively competing for authority, status, and control of the program. These two alpha males were already competing before the interview began and it was certain to continue during. Gender balancing aside, any candidate was going to have to compete for air time, attention, and focus – I set about observing how this unfolded.

We interviewed candidates for several days with the competitive energy unrelenting throughout.

Enter our case study candidate. She was small in stature but big in influence. She didn’t compete with our two alpha males for air time, she effectively and quietly ended all competition.

How she did this was masterful.

The louder they spoke, the quieter and more considered her responses. The more they spoke about themselves, the more she listened and then presented how she could help them. The longer the interview went, the more she controlled the entire conversation.

Our two alpha males shifted from boisterous bravado to quiet listening mode.

They both became comfortable, and the competition was put aside (until the next candidate’s interview). This was a masterclass in reading and influencing the room and it told me everything I needed to know. This candidate was going to lead people through the transformation, and everyone was going to rely on her support and care. They did, and she delivered in spades.

Watching her in the interview was secondary to watching how she changed the energy and approach to my two interview panel colleagues – what a masterpiece!

Case Study 2

I recently performed interviews for a management position.

The interview panel included four people, two male and two female. The panel included representatives from two organisations who were largely aligned to what we were looking for in a successful candidate. We had three shortlisted candidates who all had the experience to perform the role.

In this sense, interviews were going to be crucial in determining the best fit.

Our case study candidate was the third candidate interviewed. After two candidates who had interviewed well, we thought that this was so close it was going to be very difficult to decide. How wrong we were!

The case study candidate responded to the same questions as the other two candidates.

His experiences and responses were largely the same – with one glaring difference. Storytelling. Every response included a story, typically from the context of the interview panel members. It was simply brilliant.

So, what did this approach do to the interview panel members?

I witnessed the interview panel members change body language. Every person sat forward, leaning onto the table, fully engaged. The number of notes taken was far less than the previous candidates – people were simply too interested in the conversation to jot everything down. Interviewers started reinforcing the answers of the candidate with examples of their own.

An interview had turned into a collaboration and that is exactly what I was looking for.

Their scoring results were nearly perfect. The review of the interview resulted in engaged interviewers talking enthusiastically about the possibilities for our respective businesses with that candidate onboard. This candidate was made an offer early the next day and accepted immediately.

Often, the most effective strategy for discovering the truths you seek within the vast expanse of sameness isn't to intensify your focus but to shift your perspective, directing your gaze towards the spaces where genuine insights reside.

I write about digital transformation weekly. My 📥DMs are open for engaging conversations.