Anonymole – apocryphal agitators

How do you build a cabinet when you have no idea how to build a cabinet?

1. Select the 10 most intelligent people you know.
2. Have each of those 10 select 10 additional people.
3. You now have between 50 and 110 people (hopefully many will be duplicates).
4. Each person will be ranked by a composite factor of experience and education.
5. Take the top N x 2 people (if you need 20 cabinet members, 20 x 2 = 40).
6. Keep the remainder as alternates.
7. Put all the selectees into a room and ask them to interview each other.
8. Have each selectee rank everyone, but themselves, according to the N jobs that are to be filled.
9. Compile this list into a single ranked sequence, per job.
10. Take the top person ranked per job. Jobs will have to be ranked themselves (secretary of state is more important than liaison to the UN, etc.) so that if you have the same person picked for multiple jobs they can be assigned to the most important job.

Done

Pretty much the group picked and organized the group. This nearly guarantees an accord among them, with the ability to get work done rather than mire in contention over every little thing.