How to build workplace cultures of originality
In Originals, Adam Grant explains how non-conformists rule the world. For example, here are his suggestions for building workplace cultures: of originality:
1. Hire not on cultural fit, but on cultural contributions: “When leaders prize cultural fit, they end up hiring people who think in similar ways. Originality comes not from people who match the culture, but from those who enrich it.”
2. Shift from exit interviews to entry interviews: “Instead of waiting to ask for ideas until employees are on their way out the door, start seeking their insights when they first arrive. By sitting down with new hires during onboarding, you can help them feel valued and gather novel suggestions along the way.”
3. Ask for problems, not solutions: “If people rush to answers, you end up with more advocacy than inquiry, and miss out on the breadth of knowledge in the room…On a monthly basis, bring people together to review [problems] and figure out which ones are worth solving.”
4 Stop assigning devil’s advocates and start unearthing them: “Dissenting opinions are useful even when they’re wrong, but they’re only effective if they’re authentic and consistent…find people who genuinely hold minority opinions and invite them to present their views.”
5. Welcome criticism: “It’s hard to encourage dissent if you don’t practice what you preach…By inviting people to criticize you publicly, you can set the tone for people to communicate more openly even when [especially when] their ideas are unpopular.”
All this is more thoroughly explained in Pages 251-252.
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Adam Grant is Wharton’s top-rated teacher. He has been recognized as one of HR’s most influential international thinkers, BusinessWeek‘s favorite professors, the world’s 40 best business professors under 40, and Malcolm Gladwell’s favorite social science writers. Grant was tenured at Wharton while still in his twenties and has been honored with the Excellence in Teaching Award for every class he has taught. His first book, Give and Take, was a New York Times bestseller translated into twenty-seven languages and named one of the best books of 2013 by Amazon, Apple, the Financial Times, and the Wall Street Journal–as well as one of Oprah’s riveting reads, Fortune‘s must-read business books, Harvard Business Review‘s ideas that shaped management, and the Washington Post‘s books every leader should read. His speaking and consulting clients include Google, the NFL, Merck, Goldman Sachs, Disney Pixar, the United Nations, and the U.S. Army and Navy. He serves as a contributing op-ed writer for the New York Times and was profiled in a cover story by its magazine. Grant earned his Ph.D. in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan and his B.A. from Harvard. He is a former junior Olympic springboard diver and magician.
Originals was published by Viking/Penguin Random House (2016).