47. Life-Long Learning and Development
How Bell Labs Creates Star Performers (Kelly)
Little meaningful difference in the innate abilities of star performers and average workers (and academic talent was not a good predictor of on-the-job productivity)
Keys:
- Taking initiative: accepting responsibility above and beyond your stated job, volunteering for additional activities, and promoting new ideas
- Networking: getting direct and immediate access to coworkers with technical expertise and sharing your own knowledge with those who need it
Star performers had different definitions of these two words: initiative and networking
These behaviors can be taught
Teaching Smart People How to Learn (Argyris)
If perfection is the standard, we equate defeat with failure
Therefore, we deflect personal responsibility
Therefore, we don’t learn
The Tyranny of Perfection (reclaiming our human rhythms from the rigidity of machine ethics)
- Perfection is not only an unreachable goal, it is a misguided goal
- The problems we face are not mistakes of flaws, but challenges we need to be human (growing, changing, evolving)
Claiming the Dark Side (accepting the shadow side of ourselves and our businesses)
- Need to accept the dark side of life in order to:
- Let go of the need for perfection
- Accept pain and setbacks as part of being human
- becoming comfortable with ambiguity and contradiction
Beyond Winning and Losing (redefining motivation in a competitive world)
- Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get”
- Happy people are winners; if the ladder is against the wrong building, not all successful people are winners
- Follow your bliss