In the autumn of 2005, two American chess aficionados from New Hampshire, Steven Crampton and Zackary Stephen, enlisted for a chess tournament. This was no ordinary chess tournament, though they had participated in many before. This was a global, online tournament, orchestrated by the world’s largest chess platform. With titans like Garry Kasparov and a suite of renowned chess computers as adversaries, Steven and Zackary were excited but ostensibly outmatched.
Or so it seemed.
Steven and Zackary had a clever ace up their sleeves. Zackary had spent the previous five years constructing a database filled with moves and variations. Meanwhile, during the tournament, Steven had an array of computers running in parallel, continuously calculating alongside the online game. These computers were meticulously prepared.
Thus, a cunning system was in place. Where traditionally computers and humans competed against each other, Steven and Zackary harnessed the combined power of computational efficiency and human intuition. They devised a method, a symbiotic process, determining precisely when the computer should make a move and when human intervention was necessary.
In the end, Steven and Zackary triumphed in the tournament.
Today’s technology may make it less likely for computers to be outwitted in such a manner. I bet even AI can outwit anyone.
But that’s beside the point here. The victory of Steven and Zackary illustrates that a well-coordinated team, armed with a smart system, can surpass the brightest minds and the most advanced computers that don’t work together.
What does this narrative reveal about your company? And about recruiting and mentoring interns? Quite a lot, in fact.
Allow me to offer three lessons that can be drawn from this tale for the recruitment and guidance of interns:
1. Educational background isn’t paramount.
Steven and Zackary weren’t the world's best chess players, nor were they top-tier programmers. They certainly didn't have the largest budgets to construct a state-of-the-art chess computer. These two amateurs, armed with ordinary computers, clinched victory through smart teamwork and a well-devised system.
A famous quote from Herb Kelleher, CEO of the American airline Southwest Airlines, comes to mind: “We will hire someone with less experience, less education, and less expertise, than someone who has more of those things and has a rotten attitude. Because we can train people. We can teach people how to lead. We can teach people how to provide customer service. But we can’t change their DNA.” Hire for attitude; train for skill.
In your company or team, the probability of success is highest when the team is cohesive. Faced with the choice between two students for an internship, opt for the one who seems to fit best within your company. Skills and knowledge can be imparted more easily than attitude and behavior. The ceo of a big electrotechnical company once told me: "Give me a vocational student who’s eager to join us. We’ll teach him the rest ourselves."
2. Understand the learning environment within your company.
Steven and Zackary had spent years compiling a comprehensive database of moves and variations. What about your company? How extensive is your ‘database’ of variants, or rather, the accumulated knowledge and experience of your employees? How do you manage the development of this knowledge and experience? In other words, how does your company learn new variants? Does your company encourage people to grow and explore new avenues, or does this happen more by accident? How do you harness the power of AI?
How your company deals with learning is what Dr. Mirjam Baars refers to as the ‘Learning Climate’. (dutch link). There are roughly two forms of this climate: the regulatory climate, where the boss decides if you need to learn, and the exploratory climate, where employees are encouraged to develop themselves.
The learning climate is crucial for the quality of internships. Naturally, a student must first learn how your ‘database’ works; that's what the internship is for. But once the intern is acclimated, what then? Does the intern get the space to explore new variants, or do they hear “Just do it our way, we’ve always done it like this”? In other words, does your company have a ‘growth mindset’ or a ‘fixed mindset’?
Good learning companies have a rich database of variants for interns to draw from. Truly successful learning companies actively challenge interns to devise new variants. Interns often thrive best in an ‘exploratory’ learning climate—in a ‘growth mindset’.
Know your company’s learning climate. The more exploratory, the better.
3. Work with a system everyone commits to.
Steven and Zackary won the tournament by devising a system to apply their ‘database’ of variants. There was a clear set of rules on who did what and when.
Successful learning companies have a similar internship plan. An internship is a team effort for the entire company, not the task of one employee alone. A team is most successful when everyone knows their own tasks, understands what to expect from others, and has agreed on how to communicate. This only works if all team members endorse the system and adhere to the rules.
How is this organized in your company? Is there a strategic goal for internships? Does everyone know their role before, during, and after internships? Is there a system for monitoring progress? Does everyone involved feel ownership of their role or task? Or is the internship the responsibility of one person, with no one else actively involved? And finally; do you have a database of moves that you can play depending of the situation on the board at any time?
In Summary
A successful learning company is not merely the product of the sharpest minds or the smartest tools. Quite the contrary! It’s about the team, how the team collaborates and how it learns. Focus less on educational levels and more on attitude and behavior; choose the intern who fits best within your team. Critically examine your culture regarding learning and development. Does your organization mandate training, or does it challenge its employees to try new things and grow? Finally, ensure your company has a structured plan for guiding interns that not only sets processes and procedures in place, but also learns ‘moves’ and remembers those moves. With a solid system and clear task distribution, you achieve the best results for both your company and the intern.
I wrote this piece for a recruitment site back in 2020. It was never posted