"Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World" by Adam Grant

    Originals: How Nonconformists Move the World by Adam Grant could also be titled, "Adam Grant ruins everything...or at least lots of things."  So many ideas that I take for granted were given the death by a 1000 cuts approach with insightful examples and fascinating research descriptions.  Brainstorming, calming down, using a devils advocate, being positive-- they all were turned upside down, shaken and then returned to me with a new twist and the incentive to apply the changes made to my brain.
   
   I read Originals hoping to take a short break from education and my focus on the classroom.  But Adam Grant is the top-rated (six straight years) Wharton professor and though most of his anecdotes were from the business world, the connection to the classroom and schools was ever-present.  I planned to just read for enjoyment for most of the book, but my habit of marking pages and writing notes in the back pages kicked in strong near the end.  Here are my takeaways:

Familiarity Breeds Comfort: 
    Grant quotes entrepreneur Howard Tullman flipping the adage, "familiarity breeds contempt." Tullman says familiarity breeds comfort.  Adam Grant states that "people rarely oversaturate their audiences." The key is in the timing.  He suggests evidence that we can discuss content or classroom goals 10 or 20 times-- but with delays to allowing reflection and simmering.  This reminded me of the book, Make it Stick where mixed, not massed exposure to a topic "burns" a concept into our brains with greater success.

Fear Is Just Excitement By Another Name:
   Challenge-- you are about to sing "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey in front of strangers in a few minutes.  How does that sound?! Grant shows us the research where people were asked to sing the tune while being graded for musical accuracy by voice recognition software.  The control group ended up in the middle of the three groups tested.  On the low end was the group that was asked to tell themselves exactly what almost every teacher would suggest-- "I am calm."  The The eventual American Idol-ish, breakout winners, according to the voice recognition software, were told to chant, "I am excited." Excitement takes the go mode of fear and helps it merge into a parallel fast lane of excitement.  Calming down is the equivalent of jumping on the brakes on that highway of fear.  This knowledge is powerful for us and our fellow explorers in (and out of) the classroom.

Framing Change--Loss or Gain:
   Using Serbian dissidents, Merck pharmaceutical, Martin Luther King and plenty of brain-jarring and jaw-dropping research results, Originals instructs us how to sell change.  As teachers we sell change every day. According to Professor of Biology and Biochemistry James E. Zull "teaching is the art of changing the brain."  When should educators frame the changes and risks we wish our students would attempt as possible gains for them? When should we encourage them to change by focusing on the costs of not changing? To combat apathy and the status quo we should not start with beautiful stories of inspiration and promise.  Instead, Grant says we should "show what's wrong with the present" and "drive people out of their comfort zones." Are you ready to "cultivate dissatisfaction, frustration, or anger at the current state of affairs" to show that apathy is a "guaranteed loss." With a guaranteed loss as a viable option people are much more likely to take a risk...and change.

     A few things I will definitely incorporate into my classroom toolkit after reading Originals are:

*Innovation Tournaments
(pg. 249)
*Kill the Company exercise
 (pg. 234)
*Outsource Inspiration (pg. 220)
*Student-to-Teacher Feedback process (pg. 203)