{"id":32549,"date":"2010-04-09T09:58:22","date_gmt":"2010-04-09T08:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/blog\/?p=32549"},"modified":"2010-04-07T09:59:08","modified_gmt":"2010-04-07T08:59:08","slug":"who-moved-the-chairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Moved the Chairs?"},"content":{"rendered":"


<\/p>\n

\"chairs'<\/a><\/div>\n

I stumbled across Rearranging the Chairs as an Act of Leadership<\/a> and got to thinking.\u00a0 The gist of this intriguing post (by management consultant CV Harquail) is that \u201chow we sit is how we interact.\u201d\u00a0 People sitting in a circle interact differently than people sitting in a square, or on two sides of a desk.<\/p>\n

That feels true\u2014but not in a simple way.\u00a0 I can remember being in a group interview (three team members evaluating me as a potential fourth) at a round table. In that instance, the circle didn\u2019t feel communal a bit.\u00a0 In fact it seemed like my three interviewers had me surrounded and were closing in for the proverbial kill.\u00a0 Would it have been different without the table?\u00a0 Possibly.\u00a0 Or it may be that three against one is always unbalanced.\u00a0 Or it may have been the personalities of those three people.<\/p>\n

(Although I did get the engagement, my sense of unbalance wasn\u2019t wrong.\u00a0 I learned later that I was a hit with two team members, a wide miss with the third.)<\/p>\n

In any event, \u201cmoving the chairs\u201d may not be about physically arranging the seating.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s just a way of putting some thought into the environment, and the dynamics you want for a group situation. \u00a0Does anyone really think about the best<\/em> space for an interview\u2014or just the convenient (i.e., available) space?\u00a0 \u00a0A large proportion of interviews seem to take place in empty meeting rooms, with interviewer and interviewee perched on two of twenty chairs; or in a cubbyhole with two chairs and a bare table; or in someone\u2019s imposing office, with a big chair, a little chair, and a yard of desk in between.<\/p>\n

None of those arrangements seems very conducive to authentic communication.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s likely that most companies could do a better job of arranging the interview environment if they just gave it a little thought.\u00a0 Which would only happen if they thought it was important\u2014so we\u2019ll have to wait for a study that shows better hires come from better interview ambience.\u00a0 Until then, there\u2019s the phone.<\/p>\n

Seriously.\u00a0 Many companies are concluding that first (and often second) interview rounds are not only more efficient by phone, but also more productive.\u00a0 As noted entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki points out in a New York Times<\/em> \u201cCorner Office\u201d conversation<\/a>, \u201cwhen you interview in person, many variables come into play that have nothing to do with competence.\u201d\u00a0 Since lots of factors can \u201csidetrack\u201d the interviewer in a person-to-person meeting, Kawasaki favors a process that begins by asking every candidate a checklist of questions on the phone.<\/p>\n

So moving the chairs could also be removing<\/em> the chairs.\u00a0 There\u2019s not one perfect seating plan, but it does matter who sits where.<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

(Thanks to globevision<\/a> for the charming chairs.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I stumbled across Rearranging the Chairs as an Act of Leadership and got to thinking.\u00a0 The gist of this intriguing post (by management consultant CV Harquail) is that \u201chow we sit is how we interact.\u201d\u00a0 People sitting in a circle interact differently than people sitting in a square, or on two sides of a desk. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":32550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,25,6147],"tags":[6162,387],"class_list":{"0":"post-32549","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-best-practices","8":"category-careers","9":"category-featured-careers","10":"tag-candidate-experience","11":"tag-interviewing","12":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nInterviewing: Who Moved the Chairs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Interviews: companies find interview rounds can be more efficient by phone. Interviews can be sidetracked in a face-to-face meeting - including by the chairs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Interviewing: Who Moved the Chairs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Interviews: companies find interview rounds can be more efficient by phone. Interviews can be sidetracked in a face-to-face meeting - including by the chairs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Corporate Eye\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-04-09T08:58:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/Chairs.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"336\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cynthia Giles\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@lucynixon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@lucynixon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cynthia Giles\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Cynthia Giles\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/58241bb9b531d4ce4e6bea1e86f915a1\"},\"headline\":\"Who Moved the Chairs?\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-04-09T08:58:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/\"},\"wordCount\":473,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/Chairs.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"candidate experience\",\"interviewing\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Best Practices\",\"Careers\",\"Featured-Careers\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/\",\"name\":\"Interviewing: Who Moved the Chairs\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/Chairs.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-04-09T08:58:22+00:00\",\"description\":\"Interviews: companies find interview rounds can be more efficient by phone. Interviews can be sidetracked in a face-to-face meeting - including by the chairs\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/Chairs.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/Chairs.jpg\",\"width\":500,\"height\":336},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Who Moved the Chairs?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/\",\"name\":\"Corporate Eye\",\"description\":\"...compare, compete, excel\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Corporate Eye\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/corporate-eye-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/corporate-eye-logo.png\",\"width\":283,\"height\":42,\"caption\":\"Corporate Eye\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/x.com\/lucynixon\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/58241bb9b531d4ce4e6bea1e86f915a1\",\"name\":\"Cynthia Giles\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/00b4c2d781f5c3112f4bdd0ed82e6e42e943bd02b01a6cac8ea479bb1abecb50?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/00b4c2d781f5c3112f4bdd0ed82e6e42e943bd02b01a6cac8ea479bb1abecb50?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Cynthia Giles\"},\"description\":\"Cynthia Giles has followed a serpentine career path from academia to publishing to marketing and design to information technology and corporate communications. There\u2019s plenty of detail about this journey at www.cynthiagiles.com, but briefly--the common theme has been ideas, and how to present them effectively. Along the way, she became an accidental expert on data warehousing and business intelligence, and for the past ten years she has combined corporate contracting with an independent consulting practice that focuses on marketing strategy for smaller businesses and non-profits. Having spent quite a bit of time looking for work, and anywhere from two weeks to two years inside a wide variety of American companies\u2014she has given much thought to what works (and what doesn\u2019t) when it comes to creating a great employment fit.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.cynthiagiles.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/author\/cynthia\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Interviewing: Who Moved the Chairs","description":"Interviews: companies find interview rounds can be more efficient by phone. Interviews can be sidetracked in a face-to-face meeting - including by the chairs","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Interviewing: Who Moved the Chairs","og_description":"Interviews: companies find interview rounds can be more efficient by phone. Interviews can be sidetracked in a face-to-face meeting - including by the chairs","og_url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/","og_site_name":"Corporate Eye","article_published_time":"2010-04-09T08:58:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":500,"height":336,"url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/Chairs.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cynthia Giles","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@lucynixon","twitter_site":"@lucynixon","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Cynthia Giles","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/"},"author":{"name":"Cynthia Giles","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/58241bb9b531d4ce4e6bea1e86f915a1"},"headline":"Who Moved the Chairs?","datePublished":"2010-04-09T08:58:22+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/"},"wordCount":473,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/Chairs.jpg","keywords":["candidate experience","interviewing"],"articleSection":["Best Practices","Careers","Featured-Careers"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/","url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/","name":"Interviewing: Who Moved the Chairs","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/Chairs.jpg","datePublished":"2010-04-09T08:58:22+00:00","description":"Interviews: companies find interview rounds can be more efficient by phone. Interviews can be sidetracked in a face-to-face meeting - including by the chairs","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/Chairs.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/Chairs.jpg","width":500,"height":336},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/who-moved-the-chairs\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Who Moved the Chairs?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/","name":"Corporate Eye","description":"...compare, compete, excel","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#organization","name":"Corporate Eye","url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/corporate-eye-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/corporate-eye-logo.png","width":283,"height":42,"caption":"Corporate Eye"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/lucynixon"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/58241bb9b531d4ce4e6bea1e86f915a1","name":"Cynthia Giles","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/00b4c2d781f5c3112f4bdd0ed82e6e42e943bd02b01a6cac8ea479bb1abecb50?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/00b4c2d781f5c3112f4bdd0ed82e6e42e943bd02b01a6cac8ea479bb1abecb50?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Cynthia Giles"},"description":"Cynthia Giles has followed a serpentine career path from academia to publishing to marketing and design to information technology and corporate communications. There\u2019s plenty of detail about this journey at www.cynthiagiles.com, but briefly--the common theme has been ideas, and how to present them effectively. Along the way, she became an accidental expert on data warehousing and business intelligence, and for the past ten years she has combined corporate contracting with an independent consulting practice that focuses on marketing strategy for smaller businesses and non-profits. Having spent quite a bit of time looking for work, and anywhere from two weeks to two years inside a wide variety of American companies\u2014she has given much thought to what works (and what doesn\u2019t) when it comes to creating a great employment fit.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.cynthiagiles.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/author\/cynthia\/"}]}},"modified_by":"Lucy Nixon","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32549"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46171,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32549\/revisions\/46171"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}