If you aim for zero-defect hiring, it’s a little bit like zero-defect decision-making: you’re probably too conservative. We teach, and I subscribe to the view, that you want to pull the trigger on an initiative or an executive hire when you’re about 70 percent confident that it’s the right decision. Below 50 percent is kind of reckless. But if you go for 100 percent, you’re waiting too long and you’re probably losing candidates. Your false positive rate may be low, but your false negative rate is going to be very bad, too. And a lot of people hiring don’t track their false negative rate of
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