On being the lone kook, dancing

Jess

When I remember that Kaleidoscope is only 6 months old it’s a bit of a shock.  Having worked here for just over 3 months, it feels like so much longer; and for all of the right reasons.
 
One of the things that strikes me is how aligned and committed the team is to working differently and to place trust, kindness and honesty at the centre of what we do.  Despite the nobility of this aspiration I have to confess that in quiet moments, when I reflect on some of our conversations in the office, it is so removed from previous professional environments that I worry we’ve created a little self-affirming bubble & we are in fact a lone nut, dancing on a hill.
 
We’ve recently had cause to recruit and, typically, the Kaleidoscope approach to recruitment is unlike anywhere else I’ve worked.  Freed of the concerns of an overly bureaucratic organisational process we’re able to stay true to our beliefs – in the nature of the adverts we write (ones we suspect probably put a lot of people off but that we’ve deliberately written that way), the way we ask people to apply and the attributes we rate.  We genuinely place our values above all else; whilst of course we’re interested in the technical skills candidates bring, what we really care about is the kindness & curiosity they demonstrate. 
 
Which brings me back to the lone kook dancing … without people prepared to follow, we have no movement.  And our latest batch of applicants are exciting, curious and kind.  They are bright, engaging and accomplished people from a dazzling breadth of backgrounds and they want to join our dance – this is all the affirmation I need.