Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant

Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World 

by Adam Grant

This is a very good read. It is centred around being original and creativity. There is a lot of case studies. Lots of suggestions to become more original are given in the book.

Some snippets from the book

According to Berkeley sociologist Arlie Hochschild, if you’re feeling an intense emotion like anxiety or anger, there are two ways to manage it: surface acting and deep acting. Surface acting involves putting on a mask—modifying your speech, gestures, and expressions to present yourself as unfazed. If you’re a flight attendant, and an angry passenger begins yelling at you, you might smile to feign warmth. You’re adjusting your outward appearance, but your internal state is unchanged. You’re furious with the passenger, and the passenger probably knows it. Russian theater director Constantin Stanislavski observed that in surface acting, actors were never fully immersed in the role. They were always aware of the audience, and their performances never came across as authentic. Stanislavski wrote that surface acting “will neither warm your soul nor penetrate deeply into it . . . delicate and deep human feelings are not subject to such technique.”

In deep acting, known as method acting in the theater world, you actually become the character you wish to portray. Deep acting involves changing your inner feelings, not just your outer expressions of them. If you’re the flight attendant in the above example, you might imagine that the passenger is stressed, afraid of flying, or going through a messy divorce. You feel empathy for the passenger, and the smile comes naturally to you, creating a more genuine expression of warmth. Deep acting dissolves the distinction between your true self and the role you are playing. You are no longer acting, because you are actually experiencing the genuine feelings of the character.

If you’re seeking to unleash originality, here are some practical actions that you can take.

Individual Actions:

A. Generating and Recognizing Original Ideas

1. Question the default.

2. Triple the number of ideas you generate.

3. Immerse yourself in a new domain.

4. Procrastinate strategically.

5. Seek more feedback from peers.

B. Voicing and Championing Original Ideas

6. Balance your risk portfolio.

7. Highlight the reasons not to support your idea.

8. Make your ideas more familiar.

9. Speak to a different audience.

10. Be a tempered radical.

C. Managing Emotions

11. Motivate yourself differently when you’re committed vs. uncertain.

12. Don’t try to calm down.

13. Focus on the victim, not the perpetrator.

14. Realize you’re not alone.

15. Remember that if you don’t take initiative, the status quo will persist.

Leader Actions:

A. Sparking Original Ideas

1. Run an innovation tournament.

2. Picture yourself as the enemy.

3. Invite employees from different functions and levels to pitch ideas.

4. Hold an opposite day.

5. Ban the words like, love, and hate.

6. Hire not on cultural fit, but on cultural contribution.

7. Shift from exit interviews to entry interviews.

8. Ask for problems, not solutions.

9. Stop assigning devil’s advocates and start unearthing them.

10. Welcome criticism.