Becoming More Original - Emerging Nurse Leader

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, FAAN

“After launching hundreds of businesses – from airlines to trains, music to mobile and now spaceline – my biggest challenges and successes have come from convincing other people to see the world differently. Originals reveals how that can be done and will help you inspire creativity and change.” Richard Branson

Every once in a while, I read a book that changes my thinking on a topic. Adam Grant’s new bestselling business book The Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World is one such book. Grant is a highly accomplished young professor at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School. His work on originality is evidence-based on his years of research with major US corporations. Grant describes originality as introducing and advancing an idea that’s relatively unusual within a domain, and that has the potential to improve it. His book provides insights on how to recognize and champion new ideas, speak up without getting silenced, choose the right time to act and fight groupthink.

Some Key Insights from His Research

The most creative children are rarely the teacher’s pet.
People really censor their own good, innovative ideas for fear of rocking the boat.
Experience is a double-edged sword. The more we know about a domain of knowledge, the less likely we are to be creative and take risks.
Creative people are not necessarily freewheeling risk takers – they move into new territory slowly and generally take fewer risks in other areas of their life.
Original thinkers work hard to minimize the uncertainty that comes with a new project or idea.
Originality and creativity needs to be fostered on the job —- employees need to know that their jobs can be modified and they can take and should action to improve their work.
The more prolific you are in your work whether it be writing, research, art, sports – the more highly original your work is likely to be because you do more of work that is good to accompany work that may not be.
The amount of external passion expressed by a person is not necessarily a barometer of their internal passion or ability to see an idea through fruition.
Execution is key to driving innovation – sometimes more than the idea itself.
Research indicates that people do need to be concerned about voicing ideas and concerns to their bosses because it often does come at a price.
Creative thinkers who are upfront about the downsides of their ideas engender more trust.
If we want to have our original ideas accepted – we must talk about them over and over again – most people underestimate the level of familiarity that it takes to gain acceptance (at least 10-20 exposures).
The commitment to originality in the work setting is most directly linked to the employee-supervisor relationship.
To really test our ideas – do it with an audience of original thinkers who are more likely to challenge you.
Research indicates that for most of us – our regrets come from ideas that we did not champion rather than those we did that failed.
Research also indicates that 42% of the successful execution of an original idea depends on timing – the biggest factor between success and failure.
Procrastination can work in our favor when thinking through complex situations.
Groupthink is the enemy of originality – this happens when people are in a deeply cohesive group and strive for unanimity rather than appraise alternate courses of action.
There is a fine line between having a strong culture and operating like a cult – when similarity is the basis for hiring – people feel intense pressure to fit in or get out.
Dissenting opinions should be seen as useful even when they are wrong. Argue like you are right but listen like you are wrong.

To become more creative, Grant suggests that we should question the default. A fascinating insight from his own research is that a person’s choice of an internet browser is a great indicator of their propensity to be an innovator. For those who rely on the default choice provided with their computer (either Internet Explorer or Apple’s Safari), moving out of their comfort zone to do something out of the box is unlikely. But those who take the time to investigate, download and deploy an alternative browser (such as Chrome or Firefox) are more disposed to innovation. He tested this in call centers with customer service representatives in a wide range of companies. Wise leaders, he suggests, should run an innovation tournament to encourage novel ideas. He also recommends that leaders should be forced to occasionally take the opposite viewpoint on something they are passionate about. We need to welcome the criticism because it may contain some very original thinking that needs to be heard.

Read to Lead

Grant, A. (2016). Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World. New York: Viking Press.