If you like books by Charles Duhigg or Malcolm Gladwell, add Adam Grant to your must-read book list. Originals: How Non-Comformists Move the Rule is “about how to champion new ideas and fight groupthink,” says the propaganda. It delivers!

 

But a caveat: There is one dramatic glitch for listeners of the audiobook before they even get to the first chapter.  Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook (and author of the iconic Lean In) wrote the introduction, but she did not read it herself. That was a big mistake. Instead, actress Susan Denaker read Sandberg’s intro—it was so swarmy, I almost turned off the book. Denaker spoke like she was talking to restless kindergarteners, and because of that, Sandberg’s thoughtful and moving comments are diluted into dreck.

(Lesson for publishers: be very careful about who you pick to record the audiobooks—I’ve listened to way too many male actors who sounded like aggressive salesmens—and couldn’t bear listening to hours of their voices. By contrast, a nuanced narrator (especially when it is the author of the book) often wildly enhance the reading experience.)

But back to Grant, and his story. (Fortunately, the narrator of the book itself, Fred Sanders, was fine). Grant breaks the book into a series of stories, and weaves them through the book.  Originals explores a variety of examples about how to face challenges with fresh approaches.

Among the topics:

“• An entrepreneur who pitches his start-ups by highlighting the reasons not to invest.
• A woman at Apple who challenged Steve Jobs from three levels below.
• An analyst who overturned the rule of secrecy at the CIA.
• A billionaire financial wizard who fires employees for failing to criticize him.
• A TV executive who didn’t even work in comedy but saved Seinfeld from the cutting-room floor.”

It’s a good read, and you leave inspired to re-think your own approaches. Very relevant to our CodeX community!

Grant does seem to travel in interesting circles. Among those hyping the book:  Malcolm Gladwell, Peter Theil, Sir Richard Branson, JJ Abrams and Arianna Huffington. Said Gladwell: “”Reading Originals made me feel like I was seated across from Adam Grant at a dinner party, as one of my favorite thinkers thrilled me with his insights and his wonderfully new take on the world.”’

Grant’s prior book is Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success.

 

★★★★ Originals: How Non-Comformists Move the Rule
0 Susan Denaker narration

Adam Grant
Viking (Imprint of Penguin Random House)
Copyright: 2016
ISBN 978-0-525-42956-1

 

 

Have you read a book of interest to the CodeX Community? Send us a short review! mbay@codex.stanford.edu.

Monica Bay is a Fellow at CodeX and a member of the California bar. She is a freelance journalist and analyst. Twitter: @MonicaBay 

Adam Grant photo credit: George Lange
Cover image: Clipart.com