For example, people who were known not to be creative were being assigned tasks that required creativity; people who didn’t pay attention to details were being assigned to detail-oriented jobs, and so on. We needed a way to make the data that showed what people were like even clearer and more explicit, so I began making “Baseball Cards” for employees that listed their “stats.” The idea was that they could be passed around and referred to when assigning responsibilities. Just as you wouldn’t have a great fielder with a .160 batting average bat third, you wouldn’t assign a big-picture person a
For example, people who were known not to be creative were being assigned tasks that required creativity; people who didn’t pay attention to details were being assigned to detail-oriented jobs, and so on. We needed a way to make the data that showed what people were like even clearer and more explicit, so I began making “Baseball Cards” for employees that listed their “stats.” The idea was that they could be passed around and referred to when assigning responsibilities. Just as you wouldn’t have a great fielder with a .160 batting average bat third, you wouldn’t assign a big-picture person a task requiring attention to details. At first, this idea met a lot of resistance. People were concerned that the Baseball Cards wouldn’t be accurate, that producing them would be too time-consuming, and that they would only succeed in pigeonholing people unfairly. But over time, everyone’s attitudes toward this approach of openly exploring what people are like shifted 180 degrees. Most people found that having this information out in the open for everyone to see was more liberating than constraining because when it became the norm, people gained the sort of comfort that comes with just being themselves at work that family members have with each other at home. Because this way of operating was so unusual, a number of behavioral psychologists came to Bridgewater to evaluate it. I urge you to read their assessments, which were overwhelmingly favorable.7 The Harvard psychologist Bob Kegan ...
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exactly aligned to what I was thinking today. Instead of making everyone the jake of all trades, people should be let to deal with their expertise and have exposure to their desired novelties. If I'm not both good at and interested in hiring, then I shouldn't be bothered with it. I should not be forced to lead if I find assisting a better thing to do.
