Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life Hardcover – May 1, 2018

I was requested to review this book, because the author found my review of Creativity, Inc. After reading this book, I understood why.The Author, Francesca Gino, provides some very actionable recommendations on how to be more authentic in the workplace and how that can positively impact your career. She calls this being a rebel, because it's not allowing the status quo to continue when it forces people to be inauthentic and dramatically decreases the engagement of employees at companies.This book spoke to me on a number of levels. First was, of course, the relationship with Creativity Inc. Gino interviews the team at Pixar and draws a number of lessons from the organization, which has a long history of success. Some of the best things she calls out actually come from even older organizations, like Bell Labs (long corridors to find the restroom encouraging people bumping into each other) and Xerox where Jobs learned his love of the computing. The other reason I'm a big fan of this section is that Pixar uses a number of Lean tools in their organization, which I believe are highly subversive and drives a lot of the behavior that Gino argues is Rebel talent. In this section she doesn't specifically call out Lean as a methodology that Pixar uses, which is fine. The result and the tools that the team uses are what matters not the specific methodology.A key skill Gino argues is the most important for a true rebel leader is connecting with other employees. In the case of hierarchical leaders, as well, like CEOs, this means going to where work is done. In Lean parlance this is Go To Gemba (go to the work). As a leader, you connect best when you are authentic, when you care about the people you are talking with and make changes based on the feedback provided.Of course, there's a large section on the Chef of Osteria Francescana, Massimo Bottura. This guys is pretty awesome and connects with his staff on a personal level. If you've seen Chef's Table, then you've seen an episode about him. He's humble, always trying new things, always learning, and always in the trenches with his staff. These make him an outstanding leader.Gino ties all this together with two summaries, the first one is a section about how Bottura saves an industry and region by being a leader. This does a great job tying things together by showing the scale of impact a single person can have. The second summary really ties all these concepts into something you can use by providing you with a test and informs you with what type of rebel leader you are.I think this book has a lot of powerful ideas. It is similar to The Originals where it analyzes key people for common traits. Gino pulls in a large amount of research, both her own and others, to really hammer home the idea that we can learn these skills. Which, to me, is a key difference between the two books. The first one talks about how people are raised to BE original, while Rebel Talent explains ways you can BECOME an Original.The book well written and was a very personal story. I definitely recommend this book for anyone looking for an edge. However, I strongly recommend this book to women. In this book there's a large section about being a woman leader in the work force and I think the ideas presented in this book will help any woman out there. I think every man should read that section as it will help men understand their biases in the work place and can help address them in a systemic way.

In one of his programs, Earl Nightingale, a pioneer in the motivational, self-help movement said, “Look at what the majority of people are doing, and do the exact opposite, and you’ll probably never go wrong for as long as you live”. If your goal is to stand out from the crowd, to enjoy exponential growth rather than incremental, there is a lot of value in what Mr. Nightingale said. Another way to say that is: Be a Rebel.Harvard Business School Professor Francesca Gino, author of Rebel Talent, Why it Pays to Break the Rules at Work and Life, makes a compelling case for being a Rebel. You can think of being a Rebel as two ends of the spectrum of human behavior. On one end is what typically comes to mind when we think of being a Rebel – the negative, anti-social behavior. On the other end is the positive, progressive, super achievers. Ms. Gino focuses on the positive benefits of being a Rebel Talent.Napoleon Bonaparte and Blackbeard the pirate very successfully used the concepts advocated in Rebel Talent. We get to view both men from very different perspectives. Mr. Nightingale based his advice on anecdotal evidence. Napoleon and Blackbeard acted on instinct. Ms. Gino has done extensive study on the behaviors of Rebel Talent and presented data driven evidence on why such behavior will benefit our work and life.Ms. Gino is an exceptional story teller. Her writing is highly entertaining, insightful and engaging. All the lessons and concepts are developed and told in story format. In one of the stories in the book, she relates about her visit to Pixar Studios. One of the executives was discussing the ways to keep the audience engaged. He said if the audience can see where the plot is going, they tune out. We need novelty and surprise in our work, relationships, and communications.There are many important lessons in the book – all based on real life examples and backed by research. You will get to meet and learn about many different people - Massimo Bottura, owner of an Italian restaurant which has won the coveted Michelin 3 Stars rating. Pal's fast food chain that has found a way to relieve the boredom for its employees. Doug Conant, CEO responsible for the turnaround at Campbell Soup. And many others.One of the more valuable lessons centers around the benefits of diversity. We tend to associate with people who think like we do. But that leads to "group think" and often results in less than optimal performance.In the chapter prior to the conclusion, Ms. Gino summarizes the lessons from the book into “8 Principles for Becoming a Rebel Leader”. There is an extensive Notes section at the end of the book. In addition, she provides a wealth of additional information on a website created for Rebel Talent.

I really enjoyed the look into the different practices and ways that Rebels stepped out of line. I felt the fields of study were diverse and even though in some cases I was more interested in the subject I loved seeing how their application of pushing boundaries was successful. I feel in hindsight it was the approach or "why" was really the big differentiator.