1-Sentence-Summary: Rookie Smarts argues against experience and for a mindset of learning in the modern workplace, due to knowledge growing and changing fast, which gives rookies a competitive advantage, as they’re not bound by common practices and the status quo.
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Liz Wiseman runs a leadership research and development group right in the heart of Silicon Valley. She’s written multiple bestsellers about work and leadership, Rookie Smarts being the most recent one, published in 2014.
Rookie Smarts brings a very fresh perspective into the working world, as it argues against experience and for hiring rookies, who seem to not know much – at first.
Liz says because rookies are incredible learners and not afraid to make mistakes, they actually have an edge over experienced workers, who might be too set in their ways to find creative solutions for uncommon problems.
Whether you’re a rookie or not, you can definitely learn something about cultivating the right mindset from these 3 lessons from the book:
- The world’s knowledge changes so fast, it makes rookies a necessity.
- Rookies can have more expertise than their peers, just because they ask questions and get help.
- Even if you’re not a rookie anymore, you can regain rookie smarts by putting yourself into learning mode.
Ready to be rookiefied? Here we go!
Lesson 1: Rookies are a necessity, because the world’s knowledge changes rapidly.
We all talk about how fast-paced our world has become. But most of us don’t really have an idea of exactly how fast-paced it actually is.
In the 1980’s, architect Buckminster Fuller published a book that explained how it had taken 1500 years for the knowledge from year 1 in our calendar to double. Then we doubled again in 250 years. Then 150.
The speed with which knowledge doubled became faster and faster, due to things like the printing press, radio, TV, and, most recently, of course, the internet.
Right now, the entire knowledge of humankind doubles every 12 months. Everything we’ve learned in the past 2016 years will be twice as much in 2017.
Do you see how insane that is? What’s more, with nanotechnology around the corner, companies like IBM predict that we’ll eventually end up at the ludicrous rate of 12 hours per knowledge doubling.
That also means a lot of knowledge becomes outdated fast. Right now we face an annual knowledge relevance decay rate of about 15%. That means 15% of our entire knowledge becomes useless each year.
If you work in high tech, that might go up to 30%. Therefore, if you have a high-tech job for 3 years, you’ll have to forget and re-learn everything you know.
And that’s where rookies excel. They aren’t set in their ways and have no substantial knowledge base to build upon, whereas it will be a lot harder for someone with decades of experience to let go of it and accept that they have to start over.
Lesson 2: When you ask questions and get help, you can outsmart experienced co-workers, even if you’re a rookie.
In some cases, rookies will even outsmart their experienced co-workers from the get-go.
How?
By asking a lot of questions.
Imagine you’ve run an ice cream stand for 20 years. How likely would you be to let someone else tell you how to do it? The experience and confidence you’ve built up over the years has led to something called opinion stasis, where it’s hard for you to change your ways.
People with opinion stasis often also pick their friends accordingly, and make sure they carry the same views and opinions, making it even harder to get fresh ideas into their head.
If you’re a rookie, you’ll likely want to learn from as many experts as possible. After all, you have no clue how to do it!
Liz says rookies reach out to experts 40% more than experienced workers, plus contact 6 times as many experts for feedback. Asking for help is nothing to be ashamed of and can give rookies an advantage in terms of expertise (by as much as 5 to 25 times).
Lesson 3: If you’re no longer a rookie, you can still regain rookie smarts by putting yourself into learning mode.
Okay, so you’re no longer a rookie. Does that mean you’re doomed?
Of course not!
Being a rookie is a mindset anyone can cultivate.
Just open yourself to new ideas, throw out your ancient notes and take a fresh start at something you’ve done for years. Think back to the time when you started the job – maybe even grab a picture from way back then and pin it to your desktop, so you’ll have a reminder.
Volunteer somewhere outside work to do something you’ve never done, or swap jobs with a co-worker for a day. Buy a business book you’re skeptical about and read it in one go, and have lunch with a bunch of rookies.
All of this will help you get into learning mode, see the world with new eyes and stay a rookie at heart.
Rookie Smarts Review
Since I’m a rookie, I’m obviously biased towards the message of Rookie Smarts. However, even at my age I see the trend, be it in books or the real world, to prefer experienced workers over newbies.
In some cases, this makes sense. When I had my blood taken 2 days ago, you can bet that I was relieved when the nurse, who came in, was 50 years old, not 21. Who would want to have their arm stabbed, swollen and blue from someone missing the artery, after all?
However, that young nurse might have an idea to make the process better altogether. I love what this book tells us, not only because it talks in my favor, but because I’ve already seen it’s true, especially in the internet space.
So many things I’ve learned in the past 1.5 years about blogging, social media and content marketing, have become moot already, because new alternatives have replaced them or rendered them unnecessary.
The summary has lots of relevant info and if you’re then ready to become a perpetual rookie (and find out what that is) I suggest you buy this book 🙂
Who would I recommend the Rookie Smarts summary to?
The 25 year old “new guy” at work, who’s being ridiculed a lot for not knowing how things work just yet, the 61 year old senior executive with a lot of authority and experience, who’s a little afraid she’s lost her edge, and anyone who wants to keep up with the world’s knowledge.
Last Updated on July 28, 2022
