There’s a bakery in South Yonkers called Greyston. They make 17 tons of brownies a day for Ben and Jerry’s. They also have an open hiring policy: anyone who comes to the front door is given the chance to work, no questions asked.
Just got out of prison? Come on in. History of homelessness? You’re welcome to work. They’ve been doing it for 30 years.
In the corporate world, we do the exact opposite. We demand multiple interview rounds, background checks, and personality tests. We call it "due diligence." We operate from a place of constantly trying to prevent something bad from happening.
But look at how we make the actual heavy decisions in our lives. When we pick a spouse, we don’t call their references. If we did, chances are good their last partner wouldn't give a glowing review. We enter serious relationships—and often get married—simply based on a feeling. Sometimes we get it right, sometimes we don’t.
In business, we collect information so we can later justify, through a story, why something succeeded or failed. We use data to pretend we can predict the future.
Greyston doesn’t bother predicting. They just trust that doing good will lead to being good.