Originals (Grant)

Originals:  How Non-Conformists Move the World
Adam Grant, 2016
Penguin Publishing
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780525429562


Summary
The national bestseller that examines how people can champion new ideas—and how leaders can fight groupthink

With Give and Take, Adam Grant not only introduced a landmark new paradigm for success but also established himself as one of his generation’s most compelling and provocative thought leaders.

In Originals he again addresses the challenge of improving the world, but now from the perspective of becoming original: choosing to champion novel ideas and values that go against the grain, battle conformity, and buck outdated traditions. How can we originate new ideas, policies, and practices without risking it all?
 
Using surprising studies and stories spanning business, politics, sports, and entertainment, Grant explores how to recognize a good idea, speak up without getting silenced, build a coalition of allies, choose the right time to act, and manage fear and doubt; how parents and teachers can nurture originality in children; and how leaders can build cultures that welcome dissent.

Learn from an entrepreneur who pitches his start-ups by highlighting the reasons not to invest, a woman at Apple who challenged Steve Jobs from three levels below, an analyst who overturned the rule of secrecy at the CIA, a billionaire financial wizard who fires employees for failing to criticize him, and a TV executive who didn’t even work in comedy but saved Seinfeld from the cutting-room floor.

The payoff is a set of groundbreaking insights about rejecting conformity and improving the status quo. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—August 13, 1981
• Where—West Bloomfield, Michigan, USA
• Education—B.A., Harvard University; Ph.D., University of Michigan
• Currently—lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania


Adam M. Grant is an author and a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is considered both the youngest-tenured and the most highly-rated professor at the Wharton School. He is a former junior Olympic springboard diver and a professional magician.

Academic career
Grant is a researcher on success, work motivation, and generosity. He received his B.A. from Harvard University, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He went on to earn his Ph.D. in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan, completing it in less than three years. He worked as an adjunct professor at Michigan, then as an assistance professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. At the age of 29 he was became a tenured professor at Wharton.

Books
His first book, Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success (2013), was a New York Times bestseller, translated into twenty-seven languages, and named one of the best books of 2013 by Amazon, Apple, Financial Times, and Wall Street Journal—as well as one of Oprah's riveting reads, Fortune's must-read business books, Harvard Business Review's ideas that shaped management, and the Washington Post's books every leader should read.

His second book, Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World (2016) has also been a bestseller and was published to solid reviews.

Other
Grant has presented for leaders at organizations such as Google, the NFL, Merck, Pixar, Goldman Sachs, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, The United Nations, The World Economic Forum, and the US Army, the US Navy, and the US Air Force. He writes regularly about work and psychology as a LinkedIn Influencer.

Grant's research has been featured in bestselling books, including Quiet by Susan Cain, Drive and To Sell Is Human by Daniel Pink, and The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor, as well as hundreds of media outlets, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time, USA Today, Financial Times, Oprah Magazine, and Freakonomics blog.

His call-center study has been credited with changing perspectives on workplace motivation. In 2011, Fortune Magazine named him one of the Top 40 Business Professors Under 40. BusinessWeek then named Grant one of their favorite professors in 2012, and Susan Cain cited Grant's research on introverts as one of the 23 biggest ideas of the year. (FromWikipedia. Retrieved 2/21/2016.)

Book Reviews
Wharton professor [Grant's]...approach is mainly descriptive, but does include some concrete steps for would-be innovators to develop their ideas, and for business leaders to support them. With a foreword by Sheryl Sandberg.
Publishers Weekly


Originals are people with creative ideas that defy the traditional, but when their visions are made reality the world is improved.... Grant includes many examples, ideas, and encouragements for those who wish to try. He concludes the book with 30 practical actions to unleash originality.... [E]joyable and full of useful information. —Bonnie A. Tollefson, Rogue Valley Manor Lib., Medford, OR
Library Journal


A blend of old and new—and sometimes original—informs this pop-science piece on creativity and its discontents... Grant sometimes gets tangled in jargon, but he turns up some fascinating tidbits.... A mixed bag but of interest to readers looking to jump-start their creative powers and raise quick-witted children.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
We'll add the publisher's questions if and when they're made available. In the meantime use these LitLovers talking points to kick off a discussion for Originality...then take off on your own:

1. Adam Grant proposes that all of us have creatuve, even original, ideas even if we don't consider ourselves as nonconformists. Where would you place yourself on the spectrum of non-creative→creative? Think of some creative ideas you've had about improvements in the way you approach things, perhaps changes to routine tasks you perform day to day—or anything, really.

2. Follow-up to Question 1: What, according to Grant, is the difference between creativity and originality? Where would you place yourself on that spectrum: creative→original?

3. If Grant is right, that many originals never act on their ideas, what holds them back? Any personal experience in that area?

4. Grant asserts that sexism can subvert originality: women, say at work, are often dismissed, even penalized, for originality while men are often rewarded for it. Have you ever seen or had first-hand experience with this bias in action? Is there a way out of it?

5. What kind of organization or institutional structures promote originality according to Grant?

6. Talk about Grant's view of middle managers. Why does he see those individuals as less creative than others on the upper or lower rungs of management?

7. How can we spur creativity or originality in our children? How might say, approval, from teachers or parents hinder its development?

8. What internet browser do you use, and what does it say about you?

9. Grant provides various examples of original individuals. Whose story do you find most interesting or most impressive?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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