Earlier today, I was thinking that applications (job applications, college admission applications, etc.) exist to establish a baseline--a lowest common denominator, if you will. But then I realized that it's usually more insidious than that. Applications are merely cookie cutters that define the bounds of critical evaluation--and figo to anything outside that.
The problem with cookie-cutters is not so much that they set a minimum standard as they give too much latitude for ignoring any dough that happens to fall outside the prescribed shape. If--and that's a big "if"--the organization is exceptionally self-aware, the "cookie" merely defines the present; it's the quality of the dough (inside and outside the lines) that shapes the future. Never lose sight of that.
