I love to taking a look back at great things and trying to determine that one point in time where the path to greatness was started.  It happens all the time in sports with teams. It’s usually a great hire of a visionary coach or a draft pick of some player who ends up being an all-time great. You almost always point to an exact time and place when the path to becoming great started.

You can do this with organizations as well. When did Apple make that turn from just being that educational Apple II computer company selling to schools, to the company they are today? The rehire of Steve Jobs? The launch of a certain product.

It’s more difficult when it comes to individual departments within an organization. When I hear about a great recruiting practice, I always wonder how did they become great, but also what started them on the path to greatness.  I always ask the person who is probably most responsible. Rarely does this person ever really have an answer.

The starting point of a great recruiting practice is always going to be different for each organization, but they all have one thing in common. Great recruiting practices all started with one person deciding they were going to make a change.  They didn’t even start out believing they were going to be great, but they knew something had to change to start making it better.

The starting point of a great recruiting practice is making the decision that the status quo will no longer be something that is acceptable. A great recruiting practice comes from the interactions of people who seek to make a change.