How do you vet candidates for key positions?
The New York Times reported this week on a method being deployed in medical school admissions processes that test for people skills, the multiple mini interview or MMI.
It's "the admissions equivalent of speed-dating: nine brief interviews that forced candidates to show they had the social skills to navigate a health care system in which good communication has become critical." Each round is eight minutes and features a different ethical dilemma.
"The most important part of the interviews are not a candidate's initial responses--there are no right or wrong answers--but how well they respond when someone disagrees with them... Candidates who jump to improper conclusions, fail to listen or are overly opinionated fare poorly because such behavior undermines teams. Those who respond appropriately to the emotional tenor of the interviewer or ask for more information do well..."
"When I entered medical school, it was all about being an individual expert," Dr. Darrell Kirch, president and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges, said when interviewed for the story. "Now it's all about applying that expertise to team-based patient care."
The goal is to find those with the ability to work collaboratively with colleagues and establish trust with patients. And, "candidate scores on multiple mini interviews have proved highly predictive of scores on medical licensing exams three to five years later that test doctors' decision-making, patient interactions and cultural competency."
How could you deploy multi mini interviews as an assessment and learning tool?
