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Big Data at Work: The Data Science Revolution and Organizational Psychology
(Book Review)

Article  in  Personnel Psychology · February 2018

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DOI: 10.1111/peps.12255

BOOK REVIEWS

BIG DATA AT WORK: THE DATA SCIENCE

REVOLUTION AND ORGANIZATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY
Scott Tonidandel Eden King Jose Cortina

New York. NY: Routledge, 2015, 368 pages, $145.00 hardcover

In just a few years, Big Data has grown enormously in popularity within industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology. For
example, Big Data has been featured in preconference workshops and several symposia at the Society for Industrial
and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) conference, in SIOP's Annual Leading Edge Consortium, and at the Academy of
Management meeting. As such, Big Data at Work is a timely book that covers many important issues. The editors are well
known in the field and have a strong reputation as instructors of research methods and statistics, as well as rigorous
scholars. The book consists of 12 chapters written by 27 practitioners and scholars who cover a wide range of aspects
that will likely be of interest to readers working in firms or academia.
The introductory chapter starts with a few definitions. Tonidandel and colleagues argue that the key aspects of Big
Data involve the “three Vs”: volume (a large number of data points), velocity (in getting new data and processing them),
and variety (integration of different sources). They also discuss several areas of opportunity at the intersection of Big
Data and I-O psychology, from employee selection to diversity. The rest of the book is divided into two big sections.
Part I includes the first six chapters and is entitled Big Issues for Big Data Methods; Part II includes the rest of the chap-
ters, entitled Big Ideas for Big Data in Organizations.
Chapter 2 by Ryan and Herleman is oriented (mostly) to practitioners and deals with managing and organizing Big
Data. The authors argue that data about employees can be classified into five categories: demographic, compensation,
performance, social interaction, and behavioral data. They then distinguish four traits of Big Data; besides the three
Vs mentioned before, they add the veracity trait. This refers to the quality or trustworthiness of data. Because some
data may be generated by software applications or downloaded in different forms, Big Data analysts need to decide
whether the data are trustworthy or not. After this, the authors describe the core capabilities required for a Big Data
platform in firms, including the benefits of using cloud technology and local hosting.
In chapter 3, Oswald and Putka describe several statistical methods for Big Data. In this exciting chapter, they inte-
grate methods from a more classical regression tradition with tools used by computer scientists. Oswald and Putka
describe supervised learning methods (support-vector machines, artificial neural networks, decision trees and random
forests, naïve Bayes, and LASSO regression) as well as unsupervised learning methods (k-means, k-nearest neighbors,
density-based clustering, market-basket analysis). They end their chapter by discussing how Big Data can provide
insights to practical and theoretical issues in I-O psychology.
Chapter 4 by Hernandez, Newman, and Jeon focuses on Twitter analysis—another exciting topic. They make use-
ful recommendations on filtering and aggregating data. They also show how to conduct linguistic analyses of mas-
sive datasets. Then they demonstrate how Twitter can be used to measure city-level job satisfaction (job satisfaction
beyond self-reports!), including concrete examples.
Both chapter 5 by Evan Sinar (who incidentally is one of the I-O psychologists with most followers on Twitter)
and chapter 6 by Jeffrey Stanton deal with data visualization—a huge topic in Big Data. Sinar describes several tools,

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c 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 135
136 BOOK REVIEWS

including slope graphs, choropleths, interactive visualizations, and many others. Stanton actually goes beyond data
visualization to discuss multimodal sensing environments and immersive information interfaces—when visual displays
are augmented by data-driven audio and touch sensation. Fascinating stuff.
In chapter 7, the first of Part II, Putka and Oswald present their views of what the Big Data movement means for the
advancement of I-O science and practice. Their argument is that Big Data presents opportunities for I-O psychology but
also some threats. The opportunities have to do with the volume and variety of data in a discipline that has had small
samples. However, somewhat paradoxically, our field has in the past decades moved away from the Big Data trend.
This is reflected, for instance, by an obsession with theory in I-O programs and journals. Putka and Oswald put some
constructive thoughts and directions that the field could take to position itself within this new reality.
Chapter 8 by Illingworth, Lippstreu, and Deprez-Sims discusses the role of Big Data in talent selection and assess-
ment. The authors use three case studies to illustrate the new context that Big Data brings to pre- and posthire pro-
cesses. Chapter 9 focuses on turnover and retention. Hausknecht and Li argue that the traditional paradigm for exam-
ining employee turnover has involved individual-level, survey-based studies. Big Data is starting to change this, using
innovative ways to collect data (e.g., social, mobile) from a variety of sources (e.g., peers, external).
Kozlowski and colleagues direct attention to teams in chapter 10. They envisage that self-reported surveys will not
be the primary or only observational method as they have been for years. Based on three research projects they are
conducting, they show how the use of Big Data allows unpacking team process dynamics and study emergent phe-
nomena. Chapter 11, by Botsford Morgan and colleagues, discusses how Big Data can bring diversity and inclusion to
organizations. They propose that Big Data may allow I-O psychology scholars and practitioners to show that diversity
can bring more profit to organizations and create social value. The final chapter looks at the present and future of Big
Data in I-O psychology. Richard Guzzo discusses how our theories will need to be expanded and be more nuanced. At
the same time, Big Data will elevate the importance of interdisciplinarity. Guzzo argues that boundaries among disci-
plines such as I-O psychology, labor economics, and sociology of work will be less clear in the future. In sum, the author
suggests that Big Data is bringing about a paradigm change.
Overall, this is an exciting book and there is much to learn here. The book provides a framework for understand-
ing the Big Data movement (beyond just the buzz of it), some practical applications, and suggestions for how I-O psy-
chology is changing in the light of this new landscape. Perhaps one criticism is that there is some overlapping across
chapters in defining what Big Data is. This is due, at least in part, to the fact that Big Data is a new idea and the authors
across chapters may have felt that it was important to outline what it is. Despite this, I think that all of the chapters
were a real contribution to our field. After reading the book, I share Guzzo's view that there will be fewer boundaries
between I-O psychology and other work-related disciplines. Theory will be better informed with better data, and it is
likely that theories across fields will tend to converge. Furthermore, better data will likely reduce the divide between
science and practice. Scholars and journals may start focusing on how to help resolve practical problems (e.g., how can
we improve the assessment of job performance?) instead of worrying about only “advancing theory.” As such, after
reading this book, I am quite optimistic about our field.
In sum, I really liked the book and recommend it as a must-read for anyone in I-O psychology.

Edgar E. Kausel
Associate Professor of Management
Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences
Universidad Católica de Chile
Santiago, Chile
BOOK REVIEWS 137

DOI: 10.1111/peps.12256

THE SOCIAL COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE OF

LEADING ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE: TIER 1
PERFORMANCE SOLUTIONS’ GUIDE FOR
MANAGERS AND CONSULTANT
Robert A. Snyder

New York: Routledge, 2016, 214 pages, $160.00 hardcover

In 2008, as I was finishing my undergraduate degrees, my interest in the intersection of neuroscience with indus-
trial/organizational psychology began. That interest has remained as my involvement with organizational neuroscience
(e.g., Becker, Cropanzano, & Sanfey, 2011; Ward, Volk, & Becker, 2015) grew in this nascent area. How fantastic to be
invited to review this book aimed at linking neuroscience to practical insights in organizational change! This review
continues with a summary of the book and its aim, a synopsis of major sections of the book, and a few recommenda-
tions as to who should read it and for what purposes.

A ONE-SENTENCE SUMMARY OF THIS BOOK

Chapters 3–12 of this book, particularly sections written by guest authors, provide experience-based insights that may
be helpful for novice practitioners looking to learn about the processes of organizational change.

THE AIM OF THIS BOOK

The overall aim of this book is to bridge the gap between neuroscience and organizational change. Such a contribution
is long overdue, and we shall be waiting for it a bit longer. This is an extremely difficult task given the dearth of empirical
research published in organizational neuroscience (to date it is nearly all thought pieces). Thus, the number of claims
we can make that are evidence-based are severely restricted. The book did not sufficiently present evidence-based
statements or make those links easy for the reader to grasp. It is said that this book does have utility in the experience-
based advice it offers. Immense work likely went into the consultations that support the tips provided in this book. It
is worth acknowledging at the outset that I do not think this book failed to bridge the neuroscience/organizational-
change gap for lack of effort.

SYNOPSIS OF MA JOR SECTIONS OF THE BOOK

This book is organized into three sections, and topics move from “Introduction to Organizational Change and Change
Leadership,” to the “Brain and Human Behavior at Work (and Everywhere Else).” It seems that this book is written with
practitioner content packaged in an academic writing style, meaning few visuals and tables similar to journal articles.
Then, in the second chapter, seemingly meant to cover neuroscience as it applies to organizational change, the content
is academic in that it describes facts about the brain but does so in a nonacademic style and format.
138 BOOK REVIEWS

FOREWORD AND PROLOGUE

The foreword was written by Greg Harmeyer, CEO and cofounder of TiER1 Performance Solutions, and begins to set
the tone in the book as an indirect advertisement for TiER1 and Rob Snyder's work there. The reader also begins to
see reductionist language, a key criticism in the domain of organizational neuroscience. “[Rob Snyder] helped us design
a new methodology, one that provided our clients with the true underlying, brain-based causes of work behavior.” By
phrasing in this way, the writer fails to convey that neural functioning is necessary but not sufficient to bring about
organizational change phenomena that occur at multiple levels.
The prologue provides the reader with areas that combine neuroscience with work. Surprisingly, there was an
emphasis on social cognitive neuroscience with very little acknowledgment of organizational neuroscience. The rea-
soning for this is unclear. The prologue is a bit loose with terminology, for example, using neuroscience as “short hand”
for social cognitive neuroscience. In fact, social cognitive neuroscience is better thought of as a subdiscipline of neu-
roscience (sometimes referred to as neurosciences). This type of interchanging of terms hinders the ability of those
unfamiliar with this area to understand these disciplines and to structure concepts accurately.
Two parts of the prologue were well done. First, on page xv, the author presented a list of numerous ways in which
social cognitive neuroscience research, constructs, and theories may inform areas in organizational behavior including
strategy, decision making, training, communication, negotiation, conflict resolution, stress management, leadership,
performance management, problem solving, innovation, and management of equity perceptions. Second, the author
does well to acknowledge the criticisms of integrating social cognitive neuroscience into organizational behavior and
I-O psychology.

CHAPTER 2: THE BRAIN AND HUMAN BEHAVIOR AT WORK (AND

EVERYWHERE ELSE)

This chapter has the most material that is focused on the brain and neural functioning. The nonscientific writing style
of this chapter is geared toward practitioners, particularly those without preexisting knowledge of neuroscience or
the brain. The challenge lies in writing something easy to read for busy practitioners that still accurately conveys all
important information.
The author attempted to meet this challenge in a few ways. Boldface phrases and sentences were sprinkled through-
out the text of the chapter, I assume for increased readability for the busy practitioner who needs to skim. For the most
part, I could see this as helpful, but when only reading the boldface sentences, it became unclear why certain phrases
were included. Visuals can be helpful to convey lots of information efficiently. There is a visual of a neuron in chapter 2
that would be informative if it had labels showing, for example, how neurotransmitters move across the synaptic cleft
during neural activity. This is a missed opportunity to educate the reader.
This chapter described System 1 and System 2 modes of thinking, both of which can be read elsewhere such as
Daniel Kahneman's writings, which were not prominently cited. Furthermore, emerging evidence suggests that System
1 and System 2 divisions may need to be updated to a task-positive network versus the default-mode network in the
brain (e.g., Friedman, Jack, Rochford, & Boyatzis, 2015). This is not mentioned in this chapter. I am also unsure as to
why “neurochemicals” is used several times and then “neurotransmitters,” which is the neuroscientific term, is used
elsewhere. It is also curious to me as to why the brain is described as mainly a “social organ.” The brain is necessary for
social functions, but there are many functions the brain serves that are primarily nonsocial. We would not be able to
see, taste, navigate, breathe regularly, or sleep without the brain—all nonsocial functions.
Then, we get to an example of the care that needs to be taken in how we discuss cognitive limitations. It is stated in
boldface, “Unfortunately, none of these [employees undergoing organizational change that's conducted in response
to a problem] has a unique working memory that can be dedicated to work-related issues.” The phrasing implies
multiple working memories (when it is singular) and reads as if employees are deficient in some way. I think (and
hope) the intended message was that employees undergoing organizational change are often experiencing chronic
BOOK REVIEWS 139

mental fatigue and understandably would benefit from an organizational change effort that minimizes further cog-
nitive demands. All of our brains need energy in order to function properly. There are some neat studies that look at
the effects of low mental energy (called cortical arousal) on things like counterproductive work behavior (e.g., Christian
& Ellis, 2011). One positive way to look at this is that it is no one's fault that it is difficult to adapt to change (experienced
by employees) and to facilitate change (by consultants). It is not personal, but it is neuroscience. Regrettably, the mes-
sage in the book emphasizes the finite working memory capacity of employees followed by a focus on practical tips for
consultants.

LATTER PARTS OF THE BOOK: VALUABLE PRACTICAL INSIGHTS

In subsequent chapters, the reader sees some examples of neuroscience articles and sees words like “brain” pop up,
with citations in some cases and not in others. The author cites Lewin's models of change and brings in guest writers
who describe their insights based on their consulting experiences that were very well written in that they were clear
and contained content useful for things like getting a story of change to stick, and crafting messages to be consistent
throughout the process. Overall, there were some excellent tips that were not necessarily in boldface lettering. In chap-
ter 10, there is a helpful list of Dos (e.g., get to the point and provide clear behavioral examples underlying your point)
and Don'ts (e.g., assume you know the cause of behaviors, use shame to motivate) in giving feedback. In chapter 12,
there is a very handy summary of 10 principles listed for change leaders. The title of the list of tips is “brain based” when
the list includes no statements directly connecting results from neuroscience studies, with the practical principles. The
reader is therefore left to draw connections that were not articulated in the table—a very difficult task indeed.

EPILOGUE: THE FUTURE OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE LEADERSHIP

This was perhaps the largest disappointment of the book. The entire epilog consisted of approximately four sentences
and two fragments. The bold claims, unsupported by the rest of the writing in the book, boil down to this: Social cogni-
tive neuroscience is the future, the scientific community has learned a lot about the brain recently, you cannot imagine
the future, followed by a cliché “And, that's the beauty of it.” It is the responsibility of all of us working in the space of
organizational neuroscience to attempt to imagine that future because people have already begun to develop products
and services that utilize information about our brains (e.g., Muse). Products that interface with the brain will change
our brains and may redefine humanity (e.g., Ward & Becker, 2016). Although this sounds extreme, it is not hyperbole.
The future may be hard to imagine, and the implications even more difficult to predict—but that is our responsibility to
future generations. We have a collective responsibility to attempt to create the future we want for future generations.
The book would have been much improved if this section had been omitted altogether.

RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

The purpose of a review, in my opinion, is to allow you to make an accurate judgment as to whether it is worth spending
your time reading a particular book. My job is to use my in-depth familiarity with organizational neuroscience to pro-
vide you with my singular, biased, opinion of the quality of this piece of literature. For this book, it depends. Yes, read
parts 2 and 3 for practical tips before facilitating organizational change. However, when it comes to bridging neuro-
science findings with organizational change, I recommend looking elsewhere.

M.K. WARD
Research Fellow
Centre for Transformative Work Design
University of Western Australia
WA, Australia
140 BOOK REVIEWS

REFERENCES
Becker, W. J., Cropanzano, R., & Sanfey, A. G. (2011). Organizational neuroscience: Taking organizational theory inside the
neural black box. Journal of Management, 37(4), 933–961; https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206311398955.
Christian, M. S., & Ellis, A. P. (2011). Examining the effects of sleep deprivation on workplace deviance: A self-regulatory per-
spective. Academy of Management Journal, 54(5), 913–934.
Friedman, J., Jack, A. I., Rochford, K., & Boyatzis, R. (2015). Antagonistic neural networks underlying organizational behavior.
In D. A. Waldman & P. A. Balthazard (Eds.), Monographs in leadership and management volume 7: Organizational neuroscience
(pp. 115–141). Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Ward, M. K., & Becker, W. J. (2016). Enhancing cognitive ability and revolutionizing I-O psychology: A TIP interview with Dr.
Vivienne Ming, part 2. The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, 53(3), 39–43.
Ward, M. K., Volk, S., & Becker, W. J. (2015). An overview of organizationalneuroscience. In D. A. Waldman & P. A. Balthazard
(Eds.), Monographs in leadership and management volume 7: Organizational neuroscience (pp. 17–50). Bingley, UK: Emerald
Group Publishing Limited.

DOI: 10.1111/peps.12257

EXTREME TEAMS: WHY PIXAR, NETFLIX,

AIRBNB, AND OTHER CUTTING-EDGE
COMPANIES SUCCEED WHERE MOST FAIL
R. B. Shaw

New York: American Management Association, 2017, 247 pages, $27.95 hardcover

Robert Shaw treats readers to an insightful romp through a handful of extraordinary organizations. Shaw brings
incisive observation and useful analysis to what might otherwise feel like more of a Lonely Planet guide to quirky
companies. The book is grounded in very solid work yet is presented in a readable way. Academics will recognize the
influence of luminary team researchers like Hackman; practitioners will find the case studies compelling and engaging.
After decades (arguably, after centuries!) of academic and practitioner work on teams, it seems hard to imagine an
author having something fresh to say in this space; however, Shaw treats readers to smartly outline principles in each
chapter.
Shaw's ability to bring new ideas to the topics of teams is perhaps a function of the extraordinary organizations
he highlights in this book. Throughout the book, he limits comments to the core set of focus organizations. Although
this provides coherence to his ideas and is less taxing for the reader, it may also subtly hint at the chief flaw in the book;
Although the insights are compelling, it seems likely that they are neither particularly robust nor particularly replicable.
Certainly, gung-ho middle managers in large, potentially bureaucratic organizations are likely to find implementing the
“extreme teams” recipe for success somewhat challenging. Entrepreneurs, contrariwise, are likely to find a good deal
of useful illustration and instruction in the examples and insights provided.
The book is centered on a set of five practices that Shaw identifies as common across the diverse set of organiza-
tions highlighted. Shaw uses in-depth stories from a set of disparate enterprises to illustrate the importance of each
of these practices. Each practice gets its own well laid-out chapter, suitably punctuated with tables and bulleted lists
to facilitate absorption of key points. Each chapter concludes with a handy short list of Key Takeaways. Before delving
into these practices, Shaw dutifully devotes a chapter to the classic tension between results and relationships, arguing,
unsurprisingly, that extreme teams need to focus on both. The chapter on this tension ends with this astute observa-
tion, “Genius, in teams, is found at the edges. Cutting-edge teams push results and relationships to the breaking point
with an understanding of the need to manage the risks that come with doing so” (p. 71).
BOOK REVIEWS 141

The five practices outlined by Shaw are:

1. Fostering a Shared Obsession: Seeing purpose beyond making money. “A paradox of cutting-edge firms is that they
make more money because money is not what they care most about” (p. 79).
2. Valuing Fit Over Experience: “Cutting-edge firms would rather hire, if forced to do so, people who are “As” in regard
to cultural fit and “Bs” in regard to their talent” (p. 101).

3. Focusing More, Then Less: Shared clarity on the vital few strategic priorities that must be achieved, coupled with a
willingness to innovate and evolve. This attribute is somewhat less intuitive than the first two. “Cutting-edge firms,
however, also understand that too much focus can be self-defeating—thus, they foster ongoing experimentation in
an attempt to identify innovative customer and revenue opportunities” (p. 140).
4. Pushing Harder, Pushing Softer: Crystal clarity about both results and culture, often driving hard for results AND for
a culture of collaboration and loyalty. A table (pp. 154–155) shows cutting-edge cultures as sharing these cultural
attributes: all-In, autonomous, transparent, accountable, playful, and communal.
5. Taking Comfort in Discomfort: This chapter addresses the indispensability of healthy conflict. Shaw calls out one
of the great poisons of organizational life, “Leaders sometimes … [state] that they want open dialog when, in real-
ity, they want their teams to agree with their own points of view and preferred plans of action. As a result, team
members will often go through the motions of debating various points of view when they know the decisions will
eventually come back to what their leaders want. The entire decision-making process, then, becomes a charade,
where people appear to debate options but know the decision has already been made by their group's leader”
(p. 177).

To illustrate these practices, Shaw relies on a core set of extraordinary organizations, somewhat overrepresenting
technology firms (four of the seven) among them: hospitality industry disrupter Airbnb, Chinese e-commerce giant
Alibaba, media upstart Netflix, outdoor clothing niche player Patagonia, film studio Pixar, natural grocer Whole Foods,
and Internet shoe and apparel store Zappos. The vignettes are universally relevant and engaging, and peppered with
the sort of insights that give you the urge to underline.
Shaw's focus on these particular firms is both the core strength of the work and its core weakness. These extraordi-
nary organizations demonstrate what is possible with laser focus and zealous enforcement of culture. The majority of
readers, however, may find the recommendations at least moderately difficult to bring to life or to bring to life in a sus-
taining way. Many people have shared the experience of a magical team that functions at the level of those highlighted
in the book, only to grieve when after a few years an organizational change or other disruption brings it all crashing
down. Although it is possible to craft the sort of extreme team outlined here in the midst of a distinctly run-of-the-
mill organization, it is an uphill climb, and exceedingly difficult to sustain the magic over years or decades as the firms
highlighted in the text have done.
This is not to say that managers should not try but rather that they should be clear about what is within their control
and what extends beyond their influence. As Shaw notes, “extraordinary teams are less common than we would think
because they come with a steep price—notably the need for organizations and their leaders to give up control” (p. 211).
Organizations as a whole tend to be systems of control, and bucking that internally can be challenging. As a managerial
manual, the book would have been improved by including examples of islands of extreme teams performing within a
context of more standard assumptions and procedures, and by including specific techniques managers could use in
creating outstanding results within their spheres of control. Such managers will have fewer tools at their disposal (e.g.,
it is unusual to be able to custom tune a performance-management system for one team) and will have barbarians at
the gate seeking to pull the team's focus from, say, a shared obsession with having a positive impact on the world to
maximizing returns this quarter. Effective management is in many ways about buffering teams from outside influence,
but this book gives little guidance on how to navigate competing within-team and extra-team cultures and priorities.
The books readership should not, however, be limited to corporate middle managers. Aspiring entrepreneurs
will find much to chew on as they craft their organizations. Leaders in that critical transitional period when their
142 BOOK REVIEWS

organizations scale beyond the devoted few to a few hundred or into the thousands will find useful lessons in main-
taining vibrancy. Nonprofit leaders and starry-eyed students contemplating the promise of adulthood can all find both
useful frameworks and engaging stories in this readable book that you can finish in a single trans-Atlantic flight. Enjoy-
able, insightful, and worth the time.

Alexis A. Fink
General Manager
Talent Intelligence Analytics
Intel Corporation
Hillsboro, OR

DOI: 10.1111/peps.12258

ORIGINALS: HOW NON-CONFORMISTS MOVE

THE WORLD
Adam Grant

New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2016, 321 pages, $17.00 paperback

In this work, Adam Grant provides a stimulating analysis of the factors that account for creativity and successful inno-
vation. Although not explicitly stated, the book should be appealing to anyone who manages or works in any sort of
creative unit or function in an organizational setting, to anyone hoping to effectively lead an organization that depends
on creative output in order to survive and grow, to present or aspiring entrepreneurs, to readers who teach or con-
duct research in the areas of creativity and innovation, or to general readers with an interest in such matters. The book
is consistently well written, clear, logically organized, enjoyable, and interesting. It effectively straddles the boundary
between a research-oriented book likely to appeal to an academic audience and a more accessible work that is suited
to a wider audience. I am the sort of reader who likes to mark up interesting and provocative points along the way, and
indeed my copy of the book is all marked up now. Yours will probably be as well.
Each chapter starts with a quote that relates to that chapter's theme. For example, the chapter entitled “Out on a
Limb: Speaking Truth to Power,” starts with one from Albert Einstein, “Great spirits have always encountered oppo-
sition from mediocre minds” (p. 62). Another noteworthy feature is the final section of the book entitled “Actions for
Impact” that begins by stating, “If you're seeking to unleash originality, here are some practical actions that you can
take… for individuals to generate, recognize, voice, and champion new ideas… [and] for leaders to stimulate novel
ideas and build cultures that welcome dissent” (p. 245). The book also has a 50 page section of endnotes. These are
listed in order of the pages of the book to which the note refers, but there is no indication in the book itself that there
is any sort of endnote in the rear. One just looks back there in the hope of finding some material that backs up a point,
and there it is. This makes for a smoother and less disjointed reading experience, but sticklers for traditional footnoting
may find this approach off putting. This section is not referred to as “endnotes” as one might expect but as “references,”
and if one searches for a traditional and helpful list of references listed alphabetically by author, one's search will be in
vain.
To set the stage, Grant states that, “originality involves introducing and advancing an idea that's relatively unusual
within a particular domain, and that has the potential to improve it… Originality itself starts with creativity: generating
a concept that is both novel and useful. But it doesn't stop there. Originals are people who take the initiative to make
their visions a reality… This book is about how we can all become more original” (p. 3). The author contends that orig-
inality involves rejecting the default, wondering why the default exists, and searching for better options. Originals are
able to reverse the feeling of déjà vu to a “vuja de,” a made-up phrase that he defines as facing “something familiar, but
BOOK REVIEWS 143

we see it with a fresh perspective that enables us to gain new insights into old problems” (p. 7). Grant discusses the
various factors that hold us back from being original such as the tendency for people who are highly achievement ori-
ented to become less creative, fear of failure even among leaders who often have to be spurred on by their followers,
self-censorship, and fear of rocking the boat. Conversely, most of us probably assume that originals are people who
are willing to take radical risks. Grant argues, however, that successful originals are actually people who are likely to
hedge their bets, proceed very cautiously, and often literally keep their day jobs, for example, before committing to a
new business venture. The author states, “I want to debunk the myth that originality requires extreme risk taking and
persuade you that originals are actually far more ordinary than we realize” (p. 16). In this spirit, he concludes a review
of one study, for example, by stating, “Entrepreneurs who kept their day jobs had 33 percent lower odds of failure than
those who quit” (p. 17). It is helpful, Grant contends, to approach the matter of risk taking by viewing all of the risks we
are taking in our lives as filling a balanced “risk portfolio” encompassing aspects of our life that range across the spec-
trum from low to high risk. Successful originals seems to have an appreciation for viewing the various risks they are
taking in this manner and will take the steps necessary to mitigate the risks of a new venture by, for example, procrasti-
nating rather than being a first mover. I recently advised one of my students that “it is never wise to procrastinate,” but
apparently I was wrong!
Grant addresses the fascinating issue of how people evaluate ideas and differentiate those that are likely to be suc-
cessful from likely duds. For example, he examines why some very bright and successful people, such as Steve Jobs, saw
Dean Kamen's invention of the Segway as a terrific breakthrough even though as a business venture it turned out not
to be successful, an error that is referred to here as a “false positive,” and why experienced TV comedy show executives
failed to approve the new show Seinfeld, that later became one of the most successful shows in TV history, an exam-
ple of a “false negative.” Some of the factors examined here include the experience that evaluators of new ideas have.
There are two opposite problems to note. Evaluators may have extensive experience in one domain (such as comput-
ers) but not in the domain under consideration (transportation), or they may have too much experience in a given field
(TV comedy shows) to be able to accurately appreciate the possible appeal of a type of comedy show that they have
never encountered before. Another issue likely to negatively impact an evaluator's judgment of a new idea is the hubris
and overconfidence they have as a result of their past success, thus making them “less likely to seek critical feedback
even though the context is radically different” (p. 54), a mistake referred to here as a “success trap.” In addition, evalu-
ators may be further taken in by being exposed to a high level of passion and enthusiasm exhibited by the presenter of
the idea. Grant admits that passion does indeed matter but that what really counts most of all is the drive to execute
and bring ideas to fruition as successful ventures rather than just to invent and present something new. In other words,
actions do indeed speak louder than words.
Grant offers many useful tips for those of us who try to be innovative at work and for managers who would like
to build “cultures of originality” (p. 251) in their teams. We are advised, as individuals, for example, to remember that
existing rules and systems can be improved; to try to generate as many innovative ideas as possible in order to get at
least a few likely hits; to expand our frame of reference by exposing ourselves to new domains, learning a new craft,
taking up an artistic pursuit, seeking out job rotation opportunities, and immersing ourselves in a new culture; to take
a break in order to give our ideas “time to incubate” (p. 246); to seek more feedback by running our ideas by our peers;
and to seek out allies to “begin tackling the problem together” (p. 249). In sum, Grant provides many useful insights for
enhancing both individual and organizational innovation, and at least in regard to reading this book, there is nothing to
be gained by procrastination.

Ira J. Morrow
Associate Professor of Management
Department of Management
Lubin School of Business
Pace University
New York, NY

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