Outliers

Practice Makes Perfect

In the continuation of the discussion inspired by the book Outliers the idea of practicing harder and better than anyone else was proposed as a key to success in Pete Carroll’s 60 Minute interview. Coach proposes that the most prepared players are the ones who succeed on Saturday even though they are not always the best players. The NCAA proposes time restrictions on the duration of athletic practice for student-athletes so the very ability to reach the 10,000 expertise hour threshold proposed by Gladwell (see Lonesome Dove post) is hindered by regulation. Much of the extra training takes place on personal time- weight training, film review, sports therapy, etc. How do you maximize the effectiveness of limited practice time? What does your team need to do that is most fundamental to its collective talents? There is a story about putting the ‘big rocks‘ in first (worth the read if you have not already). Are you putting the big rocks in first and then working with the pebbles and sand or is your practice/day/meeting run by the sand and pebbles? I believe that more than one great meeting has reached a single important decision and had far more impact than a meeting that considered many inconsequential issues.

Does Age Matter More or Does Your Time in History?

Interesting article in BusinessWeek on the The Lost Generation of Entrepreneurs who did not have the opportunity to launch and guide new enterprises from start-up to more mature organization. An opportunity that had benefited the generation that proceeded them in the 1990’s.  Given the economic challenges these opportunities have been far more scares. Guest blogger Jeff Bussgang explores the very small list of entrepreneurs who succeeded from 2000’s compared to their predecessors.


Recalling Malcom Gladwell’s, Outliers: The Story of Success which looked closely at the birthdates of successful entrepreneurs:  Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Balmer, Steve Jobs, and Eric Schmidt all born in the years between 1953-1955.  Their births seems to coincide with a moment in time when technology was in its infancy and the canvass was blank, awaiting their artistic touch. 

It makes me wonder what will this period in time be known for when we reflect back?  Will it be banks to big to fail, quants, two wars, deficits?  Or are we going through a transformation so dynamic that the seismic impact is just beginning to reach the surface?  Consider the following fact from the book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel Pink.  

The consulting firm McKinsey & Co. estimates that in the United States, only 30 percent of job growth now comes from algorithmic work, while 70 percent of job growth comes from heuristic work.

First let me define courtesy of Mr. Pink.  “An ‘algorithmic’ task is one in which you follow a set of established instructions down a single pathway to one conclusion…a heuristic task is the opposite.  Precisely because no algorithm exists for it, you have to experiment with possibilities and devise a novel solution.”  Essentially it is a checkout clerk vs. a marketing agent.

Are we so focused as a country on trying to save the assembly-line job that we are missing the transformational uncoupling of the Industrial Revolution paradigms from a global workforce?  If the ownership and development of ‘ideas’ (non algorithmic careers) are in demand, would we rather own the rights to creative copyright as a nation or assemble the finished product?  

When we look back, how will this lost generation be viewed?

Tolerance


I have learned many of the most important lesssons from people who initially said things that annoyed me. Consider how tolerance of outliers has changed our relationship with icons today. A few quick examples:

  • The Cabinet of Abraham Lincoln
  • Helen Keller
  • Jackie Robinson
  • Bill Gates
  • Lance Armstrong
  • Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer

Sometimes you do not grasp that you are following an outlier. As a kid I celebrated the success of Bill Koch, the only US Olympic medalist in cross-country skiing and winner of the season long World Cup. In 1976 he raced on waxless skis to win a Silver medal. Waxless skis would be like driving a Ford Taurus in a NASCAR race. He later adopted the technique of skating and revolutionized the way cross-country skiing was contested. He was so successful that the former powerhouse countries protested and eventually divided cross-country skiing into two techniques for racing, traditional technique and free technique (skating).

Are you allowing those who do not represent the conventional view to have a voice in your organization? Do you allow them to speak and does your organization really listen and consider their message? Do you seek out individuals with different view points? Would a unique perspective change your deliberations and decision-making?