Next came the rookies. The newest
member of the group, Sara, nailed it. Her
challenge question aligned with Chris’ pri-orities
and would garner attention and
support from internal clients. The rest
of the team was stunned. Next came the
other rookie, Angela. Her challenge was
good, but not yet great. During the next
work session, while the others worked
independently, Angela sought guidance
from the workshop leader. In round two,
Angela nailed it while the veterans were
still struggling.
When business cycles are spinning
fast and organizations need to pivot and
move in new directions, experience can
become a burden and inexperience a
blessing.
THE RESEARCH ON ROOKIES
A recent study looked at 400 workplace
scenarios and compared how inexperi-enced
versus experienced professionals
approach a particular type of work.
The research showed that being a rookie
– facing a new problem or a challenge for
the first time – can provoke top perfor-mance.
Rookies are unencumbered, with
no resources to burden them and no track
record to limit their thinking or aspira-tions.
Certainly they bring openness to the
work, but more importantly, a desperation-
based learning kicks in, causing them to
work smart and seek guidance and feed-back.
In the realm of knowledge work,
rookies tend to outperform those with
experience, especially when it comes to in-novation
and speed.
In the current reality of the knowl-edge
economy, innovation cycles spin so
quickly that many professionals never face
the same problem twice. Those who will
thrive in this environment are not just
the rookies, but the “perpetual rookies”
– those who, despite years of accumulat-ed
experience and knowledge, retain their
rookie smarts and draw on the power of
learning to solve the new problems they
and their firms face.
REVITALIZING YOUR
COMPANY’S ROOKIE-SMARTS
As companies grow and become success-ful,
they can easily settle into a comfortable
place and lose their rookie edge. Savvy
HR leaders can employ a number of tal-ent
management practices to ensure the
company is fully using their rookie talent,
building powerful teams (that utilize the
strengths of both inexperienced and ex-perienced
staff ) and maintaining a rookie
mindset across the company.
The following talent management prac-tices
can foster this rookie mindset and
maintain agility across an organization.
HIRING
Instead of hiring for experience or specif-ic
job skills, hire for learning agility. While
there are numerous instruments that test
for learning agility, the four traits pres-ent
in perpetual rookies are a good guide
– curiosity, humility, playfulness and de-liberateness.
According to Google’s HR
chief Laszlo Bock in a 2014 New York
Times article, the least important hir-ing
criteria is expertise. But at the top of
the list are learning ability and intellectu-al
humility.
Bock explained their hiring strategy:
“There’s so much coming at us so fast, and
it creates an extraordinary cognitive bur-den.
We need people who are smart and
learn fast and humble enough that they
don’t have to carry the load of knowing it
all themselves.”
JOB DESIGN
With a growing emphasis on the de-velopment
of high-potential talent, it is
tempting to offer the stretch assignments
to a small minority of top talent while
the vast majority stagnates in comfortable
jobs. Everyone needs to be fed a steady diet
of challenge. In surveying approximately
1,000 professionals, individuals reported
being ready for a new challenge every three
months. While job promotions may be
scarce, new challenges exist in abundance.
Encourage managers to think beyond
promotions and instead present their em-ployees
with new challenges at regular
intervals. When designing job roles, en-sure
each job has a rookie component and
then rotate talent to keep people in their
rookie zone.
TEAM COMPOSITION
Design work teams that blend the best of
what rookies offer with the savvy of veter-an
staff. When a team is varied, working
together can be harder, but it can also pro-duce
better outcomes, especially where
creative, cutting-edge thinking is needed.
To ensure innovative ideas get implement-ed,
pair a rookie who wants to change the
world with an experienced operator who
knows how your world works.
LEADERSHIP PRACTICES
While rookies are more capable than
most people imagine, they need thought
leadership and guidance. Rookies need
managers who know when to rein them in
and when to unleash them, and they need
to be placed in an environment conducive
to learning and insight. In particular, they
need leaders to provide:
■■ Freedom with direction – Provide
space but set clear direction
feature
ROOKIES ARE UNENCUMBERED, WITH NO RESOURCES TO BURDEN THEM
AND NO TRACK RECORD TO LIMIT THEIR THINKING OR ASPIRATIONS.
CERTAINLY THEY BRING OPENNESS TO THE WORK, BUT MORE
IMPORTANTLY, A DESPERATION-BASED LEARNING KICKS IN, CAUSING
THEM TO WORK SMART AND SEEK GUIDANCE AND FEEDBACK.
28 ❚ OCTOBER 2014 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL