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May 24, 2024
Think broadly and embrace diverse experiences and perspectives
Before the age of 25 I worked in grocery stores, lumber yards, taught English in Asia, studied and played ice hockey in the UK, designed farm machinery, prosthetics and surgical ablation devices, completed a master degree and published academic journal articles. For the past 13 years at Minogue Medical Inc. I have led teams to sell, support and promote novel medical technologies such as surgical robotics across Canada. Being dynamic in life and business is a rewarding challenge although it can make it difficult to establish an identity. The book Range by David Epstein has helped me reflect on and reaffirm why broad-based skills and experiences can be important for long-term success in complex work environments. For many of the world's top performers, early specialization is the exception, not the rule. Last August I wrote about how despite starting to learn music in my early twenties with minimal lessons, I was still able to enjoy creating music and playing shows in a band (Rock Bands: Performance Driven by Passion).
Below are some ideas that resonated with me from the book.
Perspective and Connecting the dots
Are you a focused frog with his head down in the mud concentrated on details and solving specific problems or are you a visionary bird flying high above taking it all in to conceive productive connections? Writer Freeman Dyson believes we need both types of individuals to work together, although our education and corporate structures often encourage early specialization limiting individuals and companies abilities to adapt and be flexible.
“Everyone is digging deeper into their own trench and rarely standing up to look in the next trench over, even though the solution to their problem happens to reside there.” David Epstein
Imagination and "Lateral" Innovation
When Nintendo was a small company, engineer inventor Gunpei Yokoi out of necessity creatively used "lateral" thinking to create innovations. He would leverage established technology such basic calculators and radios to invent low-cost entertainment devices. When Yokoi created the GameBoy, he insisted fun playability was key. He believed that it didn’t need colour (despite competition focusing on this feature) and that what was important was tapping into a player's imagination. A responsive two-colour system was sufficient, for example if you saw two stacked circles players would infer a "white" snowman. And he was right, Nintendo sold 118 million gaming devices enabling the masses to access a novel, affordable technology!
Recalibration of Focus is Ok
Artist Vincent Van Gogh was hardworking although jumped from job to job (art shop dealer, teacher, book sales, preacher) feverishly trying to find his passion and what he was good at. His disconnected journey, lack of perseverance, and struggle to find his place resulted in discovering his true talent. Author Seth Godin wrote,
“We fail,” when we stick with “tasks we don’t have the guts to quit.”
Success can involve a long, path of learning and self-discovery.
Enabling personal and career growth
The US Army was good at selecting gritty candidates who would complete the grueling West Point training and make great military personnel. Although these top graduates would often not stay in the military it was costing the country huge sums of money in scholarships and training. Attempts to leverage monetary incentives didn’t help retain them but allowing them to choose a branch (IT, Engineering, Vet, etc) and providing them with career paths to grow resulted in more stickiness (retention). Peoples abilities and interest evolve and the type of the work they hope to do does as well. Learn more about the connection between grit, perseverance, and success on a Freakonomics podcast featuring psychologist Angela Duckworth.
Superman vs Fantastic Four: Diverse Experience
One ‘super’ individual with diverse experience is often best when seeking innovation in knowledge-based industries. Although if no individual is available, one should form a ‘fantastic’ team.” Teams with diverse education and cultural backgrounds encourage creative problem-solving that extends beyond individuals' narrow focus and allows the potential creation of solutions for applications beyond individual fields of expertise. Hedley May discusses how to unlock cognitive diversity:
- Develop greater empathy
- Harness the conflict
- Initiate culture change
- Build psychological safety
The figure below highlights the power and challenges diversity can create for organizations.
Leveraging ideas from seemingly unrelated fields
Outside views and seemingly unrelated ideas can be used to create innovative solutions. This is especially true when trying to understand an unfamiliar problem. 17th-century German astronomer Johannes Kepler when investigating space and planetary orbits turned to analogy (odor, heat, light, magnets, boats) to develop concepts and to help think through the problem. To learn more check out this article in Popular Science.
The idea of leveraging analogies to solve problems reminded me of an undergrad studies course where we completed a lab focused on using Biomimicry. After millions of years of evolution and adaption there are many successful ideas within nature that can inspire innovation. If you want to learn more about Biomimicry check out this book.
Promoting a flexible, empowered culture to solve unfamiliar problems
In 1986 the space shuttle Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds after launch. NASA's culture at the time emphasized the chain of command and going by rules and procedures. Unfortunately, this had the unintended consequence of engineers not speaking up as they could not qualify their concerns. Employees need to be empowered to voice and champion concerns to management. Working in a complex environment requires a learning culture that allows for challenging opinions from anyone at any time. Conformity and deviation must be balanced. For unfamiliar problems, missing data and new ways to approach issues must be considered. This is especially true under pressure as we tend to rely on our go-to tools which may no longer be suitable and limit our flexibility.
Why and How to Develop Range
The below figure produced by Reading Graphics summarizes the ideas and tools discussed within the compelling book Range.
I highly recommend this book. It will teach you something about yourself and colleagues and encourage you to become a little bit more comfortable with exploring new skills and ways of thinking. I leave you with an interesting quote from the novel.
“You have people walking around with all the knowledge of humanity on their phone, but they have no idea how to integrate it. We don’t train people in thinking or reasoning.” David Epstein
