21 September "Widow-Maker" Positions (...defeats two...)

[Paul Terlemezian]

"Widow-Maker" postions are ones where the "job" defeats two competent people in a row.

 

This may result from changes in market conditions or perhaps something as challenging as trying to repeat a success that was a previous success based on "accident of personality" vs a logical outcome.

 

Early in my career I observed an individual being trained to perform a task by an incompetent person and then being given insuffiicient amount of time to prepare to perform the task. The individual succeeded. We were unable to reproduce the success with others.

 

Where in the training industry do we use past examples of success as future predictors of performance? How do we avoid creating "widow-makers" in this situation?