Personnel is Policy

The other day Barton Gellman was being interviewed on NPR about his new book, Angler, about Dick Cheney's role in the Bush administration and he talked about how Cheney's hiring practices were informed by this maxim: Personnel is Policy. If you just get the right people in the right positions you won't have to be a micro-manager and you won't have to fuss with copious amounts of policy aimed at getting employees to act a certain way.

At first I understood it as an excuse for cronyism, but as I thought about it don't you want to hire people who share the vision of your corporation and thus will act in what you see is its best interest, not just because of policy, but because of who they are? I think maybe (maybe?) I'm giving Cheney too much credit, ESPECIALLY considering that his 'corporation' was a "non-partisan" government not supposed to be aimed at furthering a party, but at managing our nation. Maybe that's when this kind of thinking turns horrible - when it is used to further one particular, highly controversial, vision of what the organization should be transformed into instead of the agreed upon mission statement of company.

I guess I'm thinking about this because I am job searching my heart out. Well, I'm searching, but it hard to be pumped about anything other than the few jobs I really want (I'll keep you posted on that). I'm a sucker of an idealist. For the job back at the library (though in a different department) I just want to say "If you knew how much I love this library, and its mission, and its role in the community you would know that I would be the best option for this job." I would work with enthusiastic accordance with the policies of the library because I believe in the vision of the library whole heartedly. Personnel as policy?

ps - And I'm fungible! I'm so fungible! I can do lots of stuff well! Thomas Freidmans says that is the number one attribute people in today's workplace need to exhibit. But how do you sell that to an employer?