Liars and Outliers

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: Outliers

Competency: self-development, coaching talent (especially those entering the workforce), performance evaluation, career management

Who benefits: those seeking upward mobility

Consultant Usage:coaching job seekers/career management/underperformers

What’s it about?  I am not a numbers guy.  The numbers guy for this Blog posts his numbers on Monday.  I like his numbers.  Sometimes they give me goose bumps.  But me and numbers, we just don’t add up. 

Having said that, there is one general statistic I love.  Ask anyone to rate themselves in any category with four quadrants and a majority, sometimes a large majority, will put themselves in the top quadrant.

I did that once on a small scale.  I asked a bunch of friends how they rated as drivers: very good, good, bad, very bad.  About 75% put themselves in the top 25%.   More than 90% rated themselves in the top half.  Those little boxes were very crowded.

That’s why I suppose 360 Degree Feedback, done properly, can help people find more accurate boxes (and then decide if they want to shoot for a higher level performance box).

The point being, no matter how much we want to be at the top of the pyramid, there is only room for a few (am I mixing metaphors here?).

Which is why I enjoyed reading Malcolm Gladwell’s somewhat controversial new book Outliers.  This is a book about people who do things out of the ordinary – the outliers.  He argues that these successful people aren’t successful because of their personalities, innate intelligence, lifestyles or special talent.  He attacks (as myth) the rags to riches theme.  He acknowledges that the above doesn’t hurt, but what causes the cream to rise to the top (wow, another metaphor…do they every stop) are hidden benefits, advantages, opportunities and cultural legacies that allow successful people to work hard and learn in ways that are different from most of us. 

Here is why I think you should read the book: (1) He is simply a wonderful writer who is a pleasure to read; (2) lots of interesting trivia you are unlikely to find elsewhere; (3) he makes you think.

Here is why you might not want to read the book or read with extreme caution: (1) He is not an original researcher … he reports on the works of others without providing us the methodologies of the other researchers leaving, the validity of the data in doubt; (2) and thus some to many of his conclusions are suspect.

In the end, I enjoyed the book and made myself ask questions along the way.  My conclusions weren’t always his…but it makes for great debate. 

Catch you later.
[tags] outliers, success stories, success factors, multiple intelligence, i.q., malcom gladwell, Blink,Tipping Point, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley[/tags]

Bill Bradley

Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.