All of us want to succeed, want our children to succeed and enjoy being a part of the greatest possible successes…winning the Super Bowl, working at one of the Best Places to Work in America, winning a Nobel Pulitzer Prize or a gold medal in the Olympics. We are thrilled to be the best, individually and collectively. So are there ways to increase the odds for extraordinary success so that anyone can enjoy the nourishing joy of achieving bold dreams? Malcomb Gladwell, author of Outliers: The Story of Success makes a compelling case for this encouraging possibility.
In stories that will fascinate all 4 quadrants of the brain he makes a strong case for :
– why winners are typically nurtured by an extended community (the importance of building that sense of team, family, support and belonging which strengthens the immune system as well as mental and intellectual health/social I.Q.)
– the tremendous advantage of persistence and the magic of investing 10,000 hours to unleash genius.
– how problems become opportunities for those who persist and dream bold dreams
– how our ancestral back ground play a far bigger role than we may have ever thought
– the link between rice paddies and high aptitude in math, and
– some blocking assumptions in American education that will startle you.
I read all this with a keen interest, keeping in mind our work teaching Servant Leadership and growing organizations (communities) that learn. Again and again his research confirmed the work we have been doing on nurturing genius in individuals and teams. We all are given gifts of unique genius. The question is not do we possess genius but rather, will we choose to own and apply it?
The role of mentoring clearly brings keen advantages to both mentor and mentee. The act of consistently thinking on behalf of another and finding ways to communicate feedback and coaching transform the breadths and depths of daily experience.
One of the most fascinating insights is the 3 qualities of meaningful work:
• Autonomy
• Complexity
• Connection between effort and reward.
Effective servant Leaders work hard to imbed these qualities in the ways work is assigned to those they supervise.
In a chapter on the ethnic theory of plane crashes, Gladwell describes how low or high power distance impacts effective communications. When we are taught to defer to superiors and obey rather than to challenge their orders, we limit the collective intelligence with serious consequences. One example of this comes in the case of airline pilots. You can quickly realize how automatic deference to authority and being rewarded for NOT challenging decisions or assumptions extends to any supervisor/ subordinate relationship and the probability of their successful teaming.
What I found most fascinating was the consistent role of “hard work” and “long hours” as a quality of success. Yet consistently, along with this mantra of long hours was personal passion or purpose. Bold dreams fuel our lives with purpose. And whether you are loading baggage for Southwest Airlines (working to achieve unsurpassed Customer Service with zero lost or damage luggage), answering emergency 911 dispatch calls for Carrollton Police Department (in the spirit of being the first voice to help a person facing a critical crisis be immediately supported by the right service) or monitoring the control room of a nuclear power plant (in the spirit of providing safe, reliable, affordable power for families and businesses to thrive), having a purpose larger than a paycheck or personal survival is key.
I’ve always been fascinated by the quote attributed to Henry Ford, “Whether you believe you can or you can’t, you are right!” Outliers provides refreshing new insights into ways we can expand our successes and claim bold dreams for ourselves, our work places, our community and our world.
“What Ann does so beautifully is facilitate all our different styles to merge together as we create and struggle to reach our visions. The art in Ann’s involvement is the permanence of the change that results.”