MAIN IDEA
Strangely enough, in today's workplace there are situations where what you don't know ends up being far more valuable than what you do.
How can that be? Time and again, rookies who know nothing about a field come along and end up outperforming the veterans who have years of experience in the industry. This phenomena demonstrates the fact when it comes to the new game of work, learning beats knowing most of the time. That's the essence of rookie smarts.
The simple dynamic is if you're placed into an unfamiliar and challenging role, you're keenly aware of what you don't know. Therefore, you get busy trying to figure out what to do. You talk to everyone and ask for suggestions. You discount nothing – and often end up doing something great while everyone else follows conventional systems.
Fortunately, being rookie smart is a mindset more than a function of how long you've been in a role. You can choose to get into a rookie smart mindset rather than settle automatically for the "veteran comfort zone". The key is to get on to the perpetual learning curve and live and work there.
Become a fast learner who taps into the collective intelligence of the people you work alongside and you'll renew your career and find your rookie groove again and again.
"When the world is changing quickly, experience can become a curse, trapping us in old ways of doing and knowing, while inexperience can be a blessing, freeing us to improvise and adapt quickly to changing circumstances. Fortunately, even the most experienced professionals and organizations can tap into their rookie smarts. Those who choose to live and work on a learning curve will experience greater vitality in their careers and will be well positioned in the new game of work."
– Liz Wiseman
LIZ WISEMAN is president of her own leadership research firm, The Wiseman Group. She teaches leadership to executives and emerging leaders. Her clients have included Apple, Disney, eBay, Facebook, GAP, Genetech, Microsoft, Nike, Salesforce.com and Twitter. She is a frequent keynote speaker and has written articles published in the Harvard Business Review and other business and leadership journals. Liz Wiseman is the author of Multipliers and The Multipliers Effect. She is a graduate of Brigham Young University.
The Web site for this book is at www.RookieSmarts.com.
This is a summary and not a critique or a review of the book. It does not offer judgment or opinion on the content of the book. This summary may not be organized chapter-wise but is an overview of the main ideas, view points and arguments from the book as a whole. This means that the organization of this summary is not a representation of the book.
In field after field, rookies outperform veterans of the industry because they live (and sometimes die) on the learning curve. They aren't afraid to try new things because they don't know what won't work – which also means they don't have any blind spots or are not stuck in a rut. Fortunately, acting like a rookie has nothing to do with your age or your experience in a field. Instead, it's all a matter of how you think. To apply rookie smarts, there are four rookie mindsets to use and four veteran mindsets to avoid:
"The ark was built by amateurs, but professionals built the Titanic."
– Richard Needham
When more than four hundred workplaces were analyzed systematically, it was shown rookies (someone who had never done that kind of work before) consistently outperformed the veterans (those with hands-on experience in the field.) The reasons for that included: