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1-Page Summary of Rookie Smarts

Overview

Liz Wiseman was 24 when she got her first job at Oracle. She felt like she wasn’t qualified for the job, but learned a lot from it and went on to become successful in that company as well as other businesses. Her experience led her to study how people approach work differently, including inexperienced workers who are hungry for knowledge and prove themselves through hard work.

So, why do new people often outperform the experienced veterans? It’s because they’re not burdened by experience and can learn from everyone and everything. They have rookie smarts, which helps them to keep up with things in this fast-paced world of work where there is an overabundance of information.

The Rise of the Rookie

In 1979, rookie Magic Johnson was in his first year of playing professional basketball when he took over for injured Lakers superstar Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Despite being a beginner, he led the team to victory against all odds and won the Most Valued Player award. Was this beginner’s luck? Or is there something that we can learn from rookies like him? It turns out that rookies are more capable than people think. They often outperform experienced colleagues and their lack of experience confers an advantage to them.

Wiseman analyzed how hundreds of rookies tackled work assignments as compared to their veteran counterparts. He found that rookies have a unique success profile and can be categorized into four modes: Backpacker, Hunter-Gatherer, Firewalker, and Pioneer. The Backpacker is unencumbered and ready to explore new territory. They’re open to new practices that fit the ever-evolving landscape and aren’t tied down by what has been considered “best practice” in the past. The Hunter-Gatherer is forced into a mode that requires them to scan their environment for resources or information they might need from other people who are more experienced than they are. These rookies often identify resources and gain expertise that veterans lack. The Fire Walker moves with speed and agility while maintaining an awareness of danger (i.e., making mistakes). They obtain data quickly (i.e., experimentation) so they can formulate plans fast enough not to miss out on opportunities for innovation or progress (i.e., time-to-completion). Veterans tend to plod along doing things as usual without missing anything important because it’s too easy just doing what you’ve always done before instead of trying something different which could lead to missed opportunities or errors in judgment/planning/execution etc.). The Pioneer keeps things simple by focusing on fundamental needs (i.e., hunger & pursuit), while veterans tend stay in their comfort zone working only with what they have before even considering trying something else which could lead them away from fundamentals or create blind spots preventing visualizing new possibilities for themselves etc.).

Backpackers: an Unencumbered Mind

In the early 1980s, Stephanie DiMarco was a recent graduate of UC Berkley. She partnered with Steve Strand to form Advent Software. They were working on developing new information systems that would allow financial firms to track trading activity on IBM personal computers.

Stephanie was told that it couldn’t be done, but she didn’t let that stop her. Instead of listening to the experts who said that software like hers wouldn’t work on a PC, she saw the potential in PCs and developed software for them. This led to her creating one of the most successful companies in its field today. Stephanie’s lack of experience allowed her to see new possibilities where others did not.