Rebel Talent: Why it Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life

Description

One of the world's best chefs; a pilot who brought passengers and crew to safety in a dire situation; a woman who fought discrimination to make others better off; a magician who made history; a company founder who worked with his team to create movies that engage young and old alike. What do they all have in common? They are all rebels. Harvard Business School professor, Francesca Gino has been studying how rebels can be successful in life and in the workplace for more than 15 years. She has discovered that when we mindlessly follow well-accepted rules and norms rather than constructively rebel against them, we become less happy and less successful. As leaders, we are less effective and respected. As employees, we feel dissatisfied and are more likely to be overlooked for top assignments and promotions. As partners or friends, we are disengaged and unhappy. While rebels may seem harder to manage, they are good for the bottom line: their passion, drive, curiosity, and creativity raise organizations to a new level. When we break the rules, we fix our lives.

Francesca Gino is the Tandon Family Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. She is the youngest woman to have achieved the rank of full professor at Harvard Business School. Her research has been featured on CNN and in the Economist, the Financial Times, the New York Times, Newsweek, Scientific American, Psychology Today and the Wall Street Journal. She has also won numerous teaching awards, including the HBS Faculty Award by Harvard Business School's MBA Class of 2015, and the 2015 Poets & Quants award as one of the forty most outstanding business-school professors under forty in the world.

Great stories, great science, and great practical advice about how, when, and why to break the rules. -- Angela Duckworth, author of Grit In this groundbreaking book, Francesca Gino shows us how to spark creativity, excel at work, and become happier: By learning to rebel -- Charles Duhigg, bestselling author of The Power of Habit Francesca Gino is one of the world's most productive and creative social scientists. And with this book, she shows that she's also one of the most persuasive. She makes a powerful and convincing case that letting loose our inner troublemaker can open up new vistas of creativity and problem-solving power * Daniel H. Pink, New York Times bestselling author of When and Drive * Francesca has a very personal and self-aware approach to bridging the gap between the social norms that glue us together, and the acts of challenging those norms. The rebellious approach has led to great advances, and it also has led to abuse. She pushes us to allow for people who challenge what we do, but with a grounding in thinking about the use of power and status in our businesses and in our lives * Ed Catmull, President of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios * Francesca Gino is the best kind of rebel: the one who doesn't just break the rules, but invents a better way. In this enthralling, carefully researched book, she shows you how to become one-and unleash the inner rebel in others too * Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals, and Option B with Sheryl Sandberg * To make an omelet, you gotta break some eggs' is easy advice to give. Much more difficult is crafting a clear recipe-which eggs, when, how, blended with what?-for greatest success at it. Yet, this is precisely what Rebel Talent does for the process of breaking the rules optimally. As a result, I just ate it up -- Robert B. Cialdini, New York Times bestselling author of Influence and Pre-Suasion This marvelous and mischievous masterpiece shows how to make useful trouble without getting yourself into (too much) trouble. Francesca Gino's splendid weave of stories and studies unpacks why, when, and how to break the rules so you can do and lead more successful, challenging, and original work - while experiencing the incomparable joy of defying tired and tattered traditions (and proving their misguided defenders wrong). * Robert Sutton, Stanford Professor and author of The Asshole Survival Guide and Scaling Up Excellence *