The jigsaw is finally coming together.

With the appointment of Andrew Dixon, Creative Scotland has at last got its chief executive, and, by the sound of it, one with a decent pedigree and no unnecessary Scottish baggage. He is not a man who will have to spend much time wondering how to fill his day.

There is a massive job to be done managing the change from the surviving component parts of Scottish Screen and the Scottish Arts Council to an entirely new agency that will also incorporate the creative industries and require to forge meaningful partnerships with bodies as disparate as Scottish Enterprise and Cosla. It’s not a task for the faint of heart. And, because of the blood already spilled and the assorted delays in the start date, he’ll also have to deal with unwelcome levels of impatience and cynicism.

Nevertheless, the possibilities in the new structure remain exciting. Dixon has already indicated that he sees the agency’s role as being a rallying cry for the cultural sector in Scotland and there is currently a huge amount of vibrancy across all the art forms worth shouting about. But there is another piece of that jigsaw that is almost as crucial and mustn’t fall victim to the dead hand of bureaucracy.

One of the most important relationships Dixon will make is with the incoming chair of the new Creative Scotland board. (The advertisements for that post, and for board members, are due within days.)

How that second major appointment is handled is vital to Dixon’s success. The last thing he needs is a chair selected on the basis of forms tidily filled, boxes neatly ticked and a history suggesting their interest in the arts is more about getting their moniker on the right letterheads or pitching for a gong than rolling up their sleeves. Yet there’s a danger the process normally employed to appoint to public sector boards could attract the irretrievably dull and repel the interestingly dynamic.

We have a system overseen by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments in Scotland (Ocpas) designed to ensure fairness, transparency and competency, and to screen out numpties and nepotism. Admirable ambitions, but not necessarily appropriate for every appointment in every case.

Dixon emerged via a search that included the use of head-hunters, and arguably the same should be true of his chair. At the least, in tandem with self-referring applicants, there should be a trawl of other likely contenders based on their track record, passion for the arts and likely chemistry with the chief exec.

To be brutal, the kind of person and personality required for this absolutely pivotal role is not likely to list sending for application forms as his or her hobby of choice. Once identified and wooed, they can be subject to the necessary due diligence and, ideally, should be part of the interview panel for the rest of the board. Ocpas has a number of built-in safety mechanisms, one of which is the use of skilled assessors to ensure proper processes have been followed.

Fair enough. But there are times when the process seems to be the administrative tail wagging the dog of ambition; more geared to anticipating and avoiding complaints from failed applicants than identifying originality … the corollary of our risk-averse culture. For instance, you might assume that any assessor would examine the interview process following the panel’s recommendation.

But no. The assessor is actually on the panel. How do you assess your own judgment objectively?

What Creative Scotland needs is a chair with drive, charisma, strategic talent and good interpersonal skills. What it needs is a board not picked to cover every possible cultural base – you can always access expertise when you need it – but a lean body whose members display knowledge and commitment and can leave any personal hobby horses tethered outside the door. An early quote attributed to Mr Dixon was that he loathed bureaucracy, form-filling, jobsworths and negativity.

Say it again, Sam.