Originals: How Non-conformists Change the World

by Adam M. Grant

But in reality, the biggest barrier to originality is not idea generation—it’s idea selection.

Overconfidence may be a particularly difficult bias to overcome in the creative domain.

But there is one group of forecasters that does come close to attaining mastery: fellow creators evaluating one another’s ideas.

If we want to increase our odds of betting on the best original ideas, we have to generate our own ideas immediately before we screen others’ suggestions.

Intuitive investors are susceptible to getting caught up in an entrepreneur’s enthusiasm; analytical investors are more likely to focus on the facts and make cold judgments about the viability of the business.

Bill Sahlman adds: “It’s never the idea; it’s always the execution.”

Speaking Truth to Power “Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds.”2 Albert Einstein

A senior colleague warned her: “Be careful what you’re saying in these groups. If you’re too honest, and say what you really think, it will ruin your career.”

But there’s one form of initiative that gets penalized: speaking up with suggestions.

When we climb up the moral ladder, it can be rather lonely at the top.

Status cannot be claimed; it has to be earned or granted.

“The way to come to power is not always to merely challenge the Establishment, but first make a place in it and then challenge and double-cross the Establishment.”9

idiosyncrasy credits—the latitude to deviate from the group’s expectations.

Under those circumstances, for at least four reasons, it’s actually more effective to adopt Griscom’s form of powerless communication by accentuating the flaws in your idea.

The first advantage is that leading with weaknesses disarms the audience.

This is the second benefit of leading with the limitations of an idea: it makes you look smart.fn1

“Familiarity doesn’t breed contempt,” says serial entrepreneur Howard Tullman.25 “It breeds comfort.”

Building on a classic book by economist Albert Hirschman, there are four different options for handling a dissatisfying situation.26 Whether you’re unhappy with your job, your marriage, or your government, decades of research show that you have a choice between exit, voice, persistence, and neglect.27 Exit means removing yourself from the situation altogether: quitting a miserable job, ending an abusive marriage, or leaving an oppressive country. Voice involves actively trying to improve the situation: approaching your boss with ideas for enriching your job, encouraging your spouse to seek counseling, or becoming a political activist to elect a less corrupt government. Persistence is gritting your teeth and bearing it: working hard even though your job is stifling, sticking by your spouse, or supporting your government even though you disagree with it. Neglect entails staying in the current situation but reducing your effort: doing just enough at work not to get fired, choosing new hobbies that keep you away from your spouse, or refusing to vote.

Disagreeable managers are typically the last people we seek when we’re going to go out on a limb, but they are sometimes our best advocates.

Social scientists have long demonstrated this middle-status conformity effect.

“Middle-status conservatism reflects the anxiety experienced by one who aspires to a social station but fears disenfranchisement.”

Middle-status conformity leads us to choose the safety of the tried-and-true over the danger of the original.

Across cultures, there’s a rich body of evidence showing that people continue to hold strong gender-role stereotypes, expecting men to be assertive and women to be communal.

When women speak up, they run the risk of violating that gender stereotype, which leads audiences to judge them as aggressive. Voice is an act of leadership, and as Sheryl Sandberg writes in Lean In, “When a girl tries to lead, she is often labeled bossy.”

But this only holds true when there’s clear evidence of their competence.

“What got me heard,” Dubinsky explains, “was output and impact. People saw me as somebody who could make things happen. If you become known as someone who delivers, you do your job and do it well, you build respect.” She had earned status before exercising power, so she had idiosyncrasy credits to cash in.

In the quest for originality, neglect isn’t an option.

In some circumstances, leaving a stifling organization can be a better path to originality. The best we can do is voice our opinions and secure our risk portfolios, preparing for exit if necessary. If our bosses evolve, as Jobs did, there’s a case to be made for sticking around and speaking up. But if they don’t, and our audiences lack the openness to consider a shift in direction, we may find better opportunities elsewhere.

Although one ultimately chose voice and the other opted to exit, there’s one way in which their choices were the same: they chose to speak up rather than stay silent.

Women who meet feminine standards of beauty don’t experience the most harassment. Instead, “it is motivated primarily by a desire to punish gender-role deviants and, therefore, is directed at women who violate feminine ideals.”

Sprinting is a fine strategy for a young genius, but becoming an old master requires the patience of experimentation to run a marathon.

Lucy Stone.

Amelia Earhart, poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, and artist Georgia O’Keeffe.

“It is precisely the minor differences in people who are otherwise alike that form the basis of feelings of strangeness and hostility between them.”

This is excellent advice—and when you’re doing something original that challenges the status quo, you have to be

careful about how you communicate your why.

When officers felt undermined by their closest coworker, they were less committed, took more unauthorized breaks, and were absent from work more often.

But our best allies aren’t the people who have supported us all along. They’re the ones who started out against us and then came around to our side.

Radical thinking is often necessary to put an original stake in the ground. But once the radical idea of voting was planted, the original suffragists needed a more tempered mediator to reach a wider audience.

First, we need to think differently about values. Instead of assuming that others share our principles, or trying to convince them to adopt ours, we ought to present our values as a means of pursuing theirs. It’s hard to change other people’s ideals. It’s much easier to link our agendas to familiar values that people already hold.

Edwin Land, the founder of Polaroid.

As Jack Handey advised in one of his “Deep Thoughts” on Saturday Night Live, before you criticize people, you should walk a mile in their shoes.

Effective displays of humor are what Popovic calls dilemma actions: choices that put oppressors in a lose-lose situation.

Srdja Popovic

Daniel Day-Lewis

“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world,” E. B. White once wrote.46 “This makes it difficult to plan the day.”