AST Digital Magazine October 2017 Digital-Oct | Page 20

Volume 17
October 2017 Edition
That’s the Marshals. They don’t care if
you killed three people or are totally in-
nocent. The Marshals are not looking for either Rambo-
like bravado or self-righteous replies because
they’ll make an inherently bad situation worse.
Their job is to find you and bring you to justice –
hopefully safely. Instead, interviewers look for candidates who
can make a decision under duress and then re-
spond cogently to pointed questions pertaining
to the consequences of their decision.
Just about every organization can apply this
technique, especially with regard to conflict of in-
terest/ethical lines of inquiry.
In fact, such an approach could be significant in
both corporate and governmental selection pro-
cesses.
(See the scene. Courtesy of Warner Brothers Home Enter-
tainment, Byron Elton and YouTube)
This laser-like focus could inspire corporate ex-
ecutives to be equally as clear and focused when
establishing their firms’ strategic objectives.
Consider, for example, the ethical lapses cur-
rently (as of mid-2017) being revealed as part of
the ongoing Glenn Defense Marine Asia scandal.
The Right People for the Job
Because operational efficiency depends on hav-
ing the right people for the right job, prospective
Deputy Marshals undergo a rigorous selection
process.
The nature of this process is instructive to cor-
porate executives as they look to attract and
develop talent who can deal with today’s volatil-
ity, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, along
with the associated need for constant innovation
and adaptability.
The “do you or don’t you shoot?” no-win scenario
that was profiled in the introduction is typical of
the tough, scenario-based questioning candi-
dates face.
Significantly, there is no one right answer to such
questions, but there is a right (and wrong) way to
answer these questions.
USMS (Image courtesy of Wikipedia)
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