A short talk by Stephen Shapiro arguing that while similar-thinking teams are efficient, they stifle innovation. He challenges the idea that opposites attract, instead asserting "opposites repel," and recommends organizations deliberately recruit people who think and behave differently—"people you don't like"—to introduce divergent perspectives and boost innovation. Practical hiring advice includes pairing fact-driven people with intuitive decision-makers and matching methodical individuals with creative types.
Chapters
Contrary to conventional wisdom, opposites do not attract. In fact, there's irrefutable scientific evidence that opposites repel. Because let's face it, if opposites did attract, our political system wouldn't be the mess that it is. We would have Republicans and Democrats hugging in the aisles. But we know this is not the case. Opposites repel. Birds of a feather flock together. Now, this is actually fine from an organizational perspective, or at least it has been in the past, because efficiency was the name of the game. And when you have people who think the same way, they will get things done quickly. But today, innovation is what matters. We talk about the culture of an organization and if you look up the word culture in the dictionary, you will notice that is related to the word culture. And in a cult, as you know, people act the same way, talk the same way, think the same way, use the same acronyms. Again, this is great for efficiency, but it destroys innovation. We want divergent points of view. If we want innovation to emerge, we have to start embracing different perspectives. And we need to start hiring people we don't like. Think about the way we recruit. We hire people who fit the mold. That means we're going to get somebody who is similar to us. But if we want to hire people we don't like and people who are not like us, this is the way we start bringing in divergent points of view. We need to start appreciating diversity. We need to start figuring out ways to leverage people who think differently. If you're a really fact driven person, make sure you partner up with someone who makes decisions based on gut and intuition. If you're a very methodical, goal oriented person, maybe you need to partner with that crazy creative person. They might annoy you. The person you like the least may be the person you need the most because you want to hire people who are not like you. This is one of the keys to innovation.
