** spoiler alert ** Originals is an intellectually-stimulating book packed with counterintuitive insights and fascinating myth-busters about what creativity is and is not, pushing the reader to rethink his/her approach to creativity both at home and in the workplace. The book however disappoints in its inconsistent structure and lacks an overarching theoretical framework. At times, this leaves the reader with the impression that the author gets lost in anecdotal digressions, trying to pack too many concepts and points in each chapter. In spite of these shortcomings, Originals is a well-researched piece of work, which provides the reader with many useful actionable tips and therefore remains a book worth reading.
I knew of Adam Grant from reading his columns and especially listening to his WorkLife podcast, which is probably one of the most interesting and innovative podcasts on the market currently. Furthermore, Adam Grant’s ability to craft such a great and substantial podcast on the side of everything else he does (teaching and research at Princeton, writing Op-eds, writing books etc.) is truly impressive.
And that is probably why Originals is somewhat disappointing in its structure: because the expectations were so high. Indeed what is most enjoyable in Adam Grant’s work is how well-structured and well edited it is, regardless of the format or media chosen. That is undoubtedly the result of hard work, as Grant is a perfectionist at heart and therefore likely spends a lot of time editing and curating his work in order to make it as engaging as possible. But Grant is also one of those intellectuals, not unlike Malcolm Gladwell, who succeeds in educating his listeners and readers about complex theoretical concepts, making them accessible and fun to engage with.
To do so, in his podcast for instance, Grant illustrates concepts with case studies, anecdotes and brief interview excerpts that are highly relatable. He maintains a voiceover commentary that enables him to structure those illustrations around a common thread or narrative that tells a bigger story. This is in turn used to deliver the key messages he has in mind about a given theme (e.g. how a team of complementary talents is preferable to a team with a few all-stars, in "The Problem with All-Stars", season 1, ep. 3; or how advising college graduates to "do what they love" is terrible advice, in "The Perils of Following Your Passion", season 2, ep. 4). In a way, an equivalent to the consistent common thread that Grant maintains in each WorkLife episode is what is missing in Originals.
Some of the book’s key insights about creativity are nonetheless worth mentioning:
1. When pitching a project, the counterintuitive approach to start with downsides ("why you should NOT invest in this project") may sometimes yield surprisingly positive reactions from the audience and outcomes down the line. Grant explains that an audience that is being pitched to is inevitably defensive, wary of smooth-talking salespeople trying to sell them something. They expect (often correctly) that the person pitching will tend to oversell a product/projet's merits while downplaying its weaknesses. On the other hand, someone starting a pitch by going over and therefore acknowledging shortcomings will communicate humility, transparency but also confidence to the audience. The audience will in turn tend to lower its defensive barriers and even engage with the pitcher, attempting to find solutions to the issues raised. Succeeding in generating such a constructive atmosphere during a pitching session is usually a good sign for a new project. Audience members are more likely to invest ressources in a project in which they are already personally invested.
2. Being original does not require "to be first" if the product/service/idea put forward takes a different angle or improves something that already exists (in fact, Kai-Fu Lee makes the exact same point in the context of China’s competitive business ecosystem, where being first is usually synonymous with going bankrupt fast. See Kai-Fu Lee’s book "AI Superpowers", which I reviewed just before). Furthermore, Adam Grant points to the fact that when an original idea challenges the status quo, project leaders should be careful with how to communicate the "why". Just like an audience will tend to be defensive toward a sales pitch, most people will tend to be conservative about challenges to what they know and are familiar with. A clear narrative about why the status quo should be altered is therefore needed to generate support (Chip and Dan Heath talk at length about this and the overall processes involved in organizational resistance to change in their book "Switch". They argue that such a "why" narrative should appeal to both rational and emotional sides of the brain to be convincing). Adam Grant unpacks the concept of "tempered radicalism" (p. 124) that fits in, and contributes nicely to this scholarly debate. Indeed tempered radicals know that their original ideas, as revolutionary as they may be, will never become operational and truly influential if they are not followed/adopted a large enough number of people. They therefore learn how to tone down the most radical elements of their ideas in order to make them "less shocking and more appealing to mainstream audiences".
The above points are only a fraction of the various research-based insights that Adam Grant covers in Originals. As raised earlier, Grant does fall short of providing readers with a compelling overarching conceptual framework of his own. As a result, Originals tends to be more memorable for its specific insights, anecdotes and summarized experiments than for the wider argument they are meant to illustrate. Yet, I would still recommend the book, as its strengths outweigh its shortcomings and because Adam Grant’s work is generally worth discovering.
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