On peak potential

Posted by Fred Oliveira on November 26, 2008 | Comments (10)

I just came back from an impromptu meeting (over 2am-nachos) of the three remaining founders of Webreakstuff (the fourth of our founders is now working at Soocial, for those curious). I wanted to share a thought that was on my mind while we were eating and talking: the fact that talent – of a group or individual – needs nurture, both from the individual himself and from the environment around him/her.

From the individual himself

Coming from a shared academic background, we’ve had common friends throughout the years. Some who could be considered excellent in their own areas of work – design, development or management. Most of them, however, lack something that I deem fundamental in order to be recognized as individuals – the ability to self-promote.

“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” [1]. Likewise, someone can be a fantastic engineer, or designer, or facilitator, but if they can’t promote themselves enough to show and share that talent they may never succeed. Talking about how to self-promote is out of the scope of this post, but I’ll come back to it in the future.

Woody Allen once said that “80% of success is showing up“. Some people never do, while others – some less deserving – take all the credit. Sometimes, even the dungeon-loving, garage-living engineer needs to stand up for himself.

From the environment around him/her

In his recent book Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcom Gladwell talks about how in the high majority of cases, individuals who excel at something share one thing: they’re often people raised in an atmosphere of concerted cultivation [2]. I have always believed that the key to success is in the hands of the individual, but recently I’ve come to understand the full importance of his/her surroundings.

People who don’t work in teams often create the wrong habits, and people who work in the wrong environment never reach their full potential. Quite often it is complicated – or costly – for team members (or managers) to create the right set for people to excel, but the rewards are there [3]. One thing we found on our company was that in the past it was complicated for someone to voice their opinions without someone stepping in and crushing their ideas with a “here’s why you’re dumb”. Taking care of that problem (not with specific actions, but slow change) made brainstorming natural, which in turn contributes to people being, well, empowered to get better.

Concluding thoughts

In the end, whether someone excels or not is a result of his/her actions and the environment or workplace around the person. Not all individuals are lucky enough to do something relevant (and promote it), and to work somewhere where their value is recognized. A shame, though, is the astounding number of talents you and I will never hear of because the person was either shy, or just hampered by his/her surroundings.

Footer notes:

[1]: Or as George Carlin would say, “If a man speaks in the forest and there is no woman there to hear it, is he still wrong?”. Man, I miss George Carlin.
[2]: For more information about what concerted cultivation is, make sure you read Malcom’s book, or this Wikipedia paragraph on it.
[3]: There are inumerous books that talk about these topics, but I’ll recommend 3: 1) The Art of Innovation (definitely one of my top 5 favorite books), 2) The Ten Faces of Innovation, and 3) Hot Spots. If you are looking for a short reference of the 10 faces of innovation, and particularly of the Set Designer, see this.

Comments on this post

[...] read Fred’s post, got curious about IDEO, added the book to my reading list, and found this engaging talk by their [...]

Hey Fred,

I think your post is right on the mouche.

It is always with wonder that I find that a particular field of knowledge that is very dear to me, human psychology, emerges naturally into the working place.

It is a given for psychology that an environment filled with truthful affection and care, will drive children’s self esteem up, which is a requirement for self promotion. To me, it seems like, affection for a child will be filling her with the will and trust so that during life, self promotion will become a natural thing.

A connection between Development Psychology and getting the right set on your company may seem far fetched, but not that much. IMHO.

And ultimately, we should try to achieve a good environment in our companies, not because it might make it more successful, but because we should treat each one of us right. The rest will follow.

Antonio

[...] in particular I posted an article on peak potential (and how some people unfortunately never reach it) that I’d love you to read and discuss. It [...]

Sempre defendi a ideia de que “há que ser e parecer…”

há pessoas que nascem com o “bichinho” de querem ser “grandes”, mas depois há diferenças, umas já nascem num ambiente onde tudo o que as rodeia alimenta esse bichinho, outras não têm nada disso, antes pelo contrário, têm um ambiente que não faz ninguém crescer, mas ele está la, e se a pessoa acreditar nele, ele acaba por crescer por ele próprio. digo eu…

nice post fred.

trully inspiring Fred.. just what i was needing to ‘hear’… I couldnt agree more, sometimes i think i´ll work on the things i love the most…but sometimes there´s a dark feeling telling me that things can actually go wrong and i will never get the credits i deserve……… seriously, i finish my internship tomorrow n im starting to look for a job in bcn. i must say i much more motivated

So true…
The one thing I have to say is that this current world is not meant for people who are gifted at management but don’t have much of “doing” skills… We live in a world where the “doers” get to manage and (most of the times) they don’t have any management skills and putting them in that position is taking them from what they do best and love: the “doing”. And I believe that is a crucial point for true potential achievement.

But very much agree with the “stand up” aspect… I’ve been doing much more of that lately around where I work. I’m starting to be less afraid of stating my opinion and that is helping me feel more fulfilled and, usually :p, benefits my employer, co-workers, etc… Because “opinion making” is one of my main motivations. :)

Keep it up guys! Love your work! :)

I would love to hear more about how you change your culture to make brainstorming more natural. I’ve found in the past that it is very difficult to throw ideas around without people upsetting each other. Possibly worse than people getting upset is that subjectivity is lost when emotions start flying.

@Geoff: I’ll most definitely do a post on brainstorming. But if you want a quick fix, try to get a chance to read “The Perfect Brainstorm”, a chapter on “The Art of Innovation” by Tom Kelley. It’s a great read, and boils down to a few rules. Here they are, with a couple added by myself:

Don’t look at brainstorming sessions as regular meetings, go for quantity, encourage wild ideas, be visual, use the space around you, don’t be afraid to sketch, never play devils advocate.

This last one is the one that I would pay most attention to. When people start criticizing other ideas off the bat, the session dies much quicker. It kinda makes people think before they speak in fear of being ridiculed, which is definitely not something you should do in a brainstorming session (which is why you never treat brainstorming as a meeting).

You just got my posting juices going by asking about brainstorming, so I’ll start writing a post on it right now :-)

[...] On peak potential L’environnement dans lequel une personne évolue va façonner cette personne et lui donner les moyens de s’exprimer et de s’améliorer. Il s’agit donc d’une des clés du succès, au même titre que le fait d’être capable de se vendre. [...]

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