The View from PMI50: Non-Conformists Move the World

October 5, 2019 | by Johanna Mickel

Great to be at the 50th anniversary of PMI here in our hometown, Philadelphia, PA! The opening keynoteer, Adam Grant is recognized as one of the world’s 10 most influential management thinkers and -- how appropriate – a Wharton professor.  Author of the book Originals, ant gave an engaging and thought-provoking presentation.

His opening idea was that organizations need original thinking but that most of us keep silent about our ideas. He said that some of the most creative thinkers are full of self-doubt and great at procrastinating. He put forth five concepts to help drive ideas effectively:

1. Put your worst foot forward.Use reverse psychology to establish your credibility. Most people won't identify more than three or four issues with something and by upfront identifying the top three weaknesses with something right off the mark, it tends to stop others from coming up with more issues (you did the work for them).
2. Make the unfamiliar familiar. He noted that it usually takes ten to twenty exposures to something before it becomes familiar and people "get it." He did a group exercise with clapping out a song and seeing if our partner recognized it. We have the song clearly in our head but our partner doesn’t have that context. (Think about how cultural differences widen this gap! Not just ethnic but generational differences.)
3. Be a giver and not a taker. He asked the audience their view on the percentage of people who "took" from their company. He noted that there are two types of people – those who are agreeable (nice people that we like) and disagreeable. Doing what most consultants do and creating a four-block grid, he commented that when we put forth ideas, we definitely don’t want the Agreeable Takers on our team (they will backstab or steal our ideas but do it with a smile). We also don’t want the Disagreeable Takers. He showed great promise for the Disagreeable Givers!
4. Create psychological safety. He shot holes in the familiar phrase, "don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions" and accurately noted that is not a collaborative way to safely generate new ideas and options to issues.  He also referenced an interesting management exercise he observed from a pharma company on “how to kill the company” in which participants came up with ideas … some turned out to be real threats, but since everyone was supposed to come up with negative options, nothing was off limits and some ideas turned up creative options.
5. Harness the strength of weak ties. He spoke of using those who we are not as close with (our weak ties) to explore fresh ideas.

Grant concluded that rather than showing paranoia over ideas, perhaps there is pronoia (the universe is out to help us). Nice thought!

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