Ep. 148 - Francesca Gino, Harvard Professor and Author of Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break All the Rules in Work and in Life

Francesca Gino is a professor/affiliated with Harvard’s Business, Law, and Kennedy Schools. She is the author of Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break All the Rules in Work and in Life. She also recently published an article in Harvard Business Review on Why Curiosity Matters - The Business Case for Curiosity. Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation founder, talks with Francesca, about when rule breaking happens and what happens to people that do it successfully.

Curiosity
Curiosity is an important driver behind the experience of rule breaking. 
We are born with lots of curiosity, but it starts declining at five years old. 
When people join new jobs, they have high curiosity, but in 9 months, their curiosity has dropped 20%. What can companies do to keep that high?

What can organizations do to support curiosity?
- Change the mindset about what curiosity can do. 
- Good for business and leaders to model behavior. Ask What if we changed …
- Hard to know what outcomes of questions are. As How and What questions.

Are there different ways to measure curiosity?
- Intuit has innovation and failure awards (lessons learned and comes with a party).
- Wake for Startups ending
- A company gave 1 hr for lunch and 1 hr for culture. Then opened a library in the manufacturing plant. 

Rebel Talent
- People who challenge rules for positive change
- Talents include curiosity, novelty, perspective, diversity, and authenticity.
- You can foster each trait. Releasing a sculpture from a block. Don’t have to be born a rebel, but bring those traits out. 

Can curiosity be effective in moving an organization forward? 
- Thoughtfulness by leaders. 
- Develop Performance Goals and Learning Goals. 

Obstacles to overcome?
- Leadership level. Sense of fear. If you allow for curiosity, you’ll end up in chains. Allowing curiosity says I trust you. 
- Employee side - Change starts with each one of us. 

How do you hire Rebels?
- Pay attention to answers matching skills. E.g. - Hiring people with different perspectives than you.

If you want to find out more about Francesca or her book check out rebeltalents.org. There is a FREE test, with no email required, that tells you which type of Rebel you are. 

If you enjoyed this podcast, you might also enjoy:

Ep. 126 – Barry O’Reilly, Author of Unlearn & Lean Enterprise
Ep. 117 – Nicole Rufuku, Author of Hiring for the Innovation Economy
Ep. 109 – Greg Larkin, Corporate Entrepreneur and Author of “This Might Get Me Fired”

Find this episode of Inside Outside Innovation at insideoutside.io. You can also listen on Acast, iTunes, Sticher, Spotify, and Google Play.
 
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