We hosted a web based meeting this past week for our HRoundtable members and clients to learn from award-winning Harvard Business school professor and behavioral scientist, Francesca Gino. Her new book is “Rebel Talent: Why it pays to break the rules at work and in life.” She has spent over a decade studying rebels in organizations around the world. In her work she identifies leaders and workers who personify “rebel talent.”
Our conversation with Francesca was inspiring and allowed us to better understand what it means to embrace creativity and uncomfortable-ness in the quest for learning and experimentation in our work. Do we allow novelty at work? Are we reframing strengths and allowing people to play off their strengths to help others? Can we as leaders allow our workers to turn accidents into a source of inspiration?
We talked about five ingredients for rebel talent success. The examples illustrated how organizations are changing the learning and doing conversation. Some of the aha moments for me were Francesca’s comments such as;
A three Michelin star restaurant in Modena Italy offering thirteen -course tasting menus orders a pizza at the request of children in a returning family and truly personalizes the experience.
The power of authenticity and expressing yourself honestly is contagious - help others see where the talent is in your company. Sometimes it is not where you expect it.
Rebels bring positive change and creativity to the hiring process. Google's CEO says we run the company on questions and not answers. Their unique hiring process gets at your level of curiosity and how often you ask "why?"
Think about turning accidents into a source of inspiration.
Francesca talk about curiosity in her book. She asked over three thousand employees from several companies to answer questions about curiosity. Most (92%) said it was about bringing new ideas to teams and seeing curiosity as a catalyst to job satisfaction and high performance. Only a few (24%), reported feeling curious in their jobs. Many see big barriers to exploring, asking questions and even failing in the process. The message is that curiosity can be fostered and we talked about organizations that do this with intention and celebration.
Rebels break rules and bring about positive change says Francesca. What type of rebel are you? If you go to www.rebeltalents.orgyou can take an assessment to find out.
Thank you Francesca for taking the time from your Harvard classroom and consulting to be with us so authentically and energetically so that we begin to see the power of the rebel in all of us.
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