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The Rich Roll Podcast

Adam Grant On The Joy of Being Wrong, The Power of Rethinking & The Future of Work

The Rich Roll Podcast

Rich Roll

Health & Fitness, Education, Self-improvement, Society & Culture

4.812.9K Ratings

🗓️ 15 February 2021

⏱️ 118 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Meet Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist who specializes in how we can find motivation and meaning in work, and live more generous and creative lives. After graduating from Harvard magna cum laude, Adam completed his master’s degree and Ph.D. at the University of Michigan in just three years. At 28 he became Wharton’s youngest-ever tenured professor, where he has been recognized as the top-rated professor for seven straight years, named one of the world’s 10 most influential management thinkers and listed among Fortune‘s 40 under 40. One of the world’s most-cited, prolific and significant researchers in business and economics, Adam is the author of several New York Times bestselling books that have sold millions of copies and been translated into 35 languages, including Give and Take, Originals, and Option B. His books have been named among the year’s best by Amazon, Apple, the Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal and praised by J.J. Abrams, Richard Branson, Bill and Melinda Gates, Malcolm Gladwell, Daniel Kahneman, and Malala Yousafzai. Certain to be another culture-tilting bestseller, Adam’s new book, and the focus of today’s conversation, is Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know. In addition, Adam’s TED Talks on original thinkers and givers and takers have garnered over 20 million views. And when he’s not writing, teaching, parenting, or consulting on behalf of organizations like Google, the NBA, or the Gates Foundation, he hosts WorkLife, a chart-topping TED original podcast. Equal parts fun and powerful, this conversation is about the importance and power of interpersonal and collective rethinking. We discuss strategies for engaging with others who see the world differently. And what we can learn when we lead not with argumentation but rather with curiosity and humility. In a time of entrenched polarization, Adam creates space for nuance. He teaches us to think critically and carefully. To ask questions. And to hold our views flexibly. He also offers sage advice on work in the time of COVID, when so many people’s professional ecosystems have been turned upside down. My hope is that this exchange encourages you to identify your own biases. Emboldens you to connect more meaningfully with those who see things differently. And inspires you to relish in being wrong. FULL BLOG & SHOW NOTES: bit.ly/richroll580 YouTube: bit.ly/adamgrant580 It was an honor to hold space with a luminary I have greatly respected from afar. And to make a new friend along the way. May this conversation leave you thinking more critically about your own beliefs—and more empathetically about others’. Peace + Plants, Rich Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

I've never done anything where my first draft was any good,

0:04.0

and where I didn't want to constantly revise and improve it.

0:08.0

Whether it was the first time I tried to dive or the first draft of a book that I had to throw out,

0:13.0

or the TED Talk that I rewrote from scratch over and over and over again.

0:18.0

And everybody who achieves excellence in any domain knows that

0:21.0

it's the constant rewriting and rethinking and revising that makes you good

0:25.0

and helps you get better.

0:27.0

And I think once you recognize, hey, you know what, feeling threatened or hating somebody else

0:32.0

or being offended by somebody else, that's a first draft of a response.

0:36.0

Then you can go and write a revision and ask yourself, okay, is that a teachable moment?

0:41.0

Did I just learn something about what activates my prosecutor instincts

0:46.0

or what puts me in an preaching mindset?

0:49.0

And if I understand that better, then I have more control over what mindset I landed.

0:54.0

With that in mind, I would say maybe one of the best long-term investments we can make as a country

0:59.0

is to say, let's teach the next generation of kids to be eager, enthusiastic, curious, humble re-thinkers.

1:06.0

That's Adam Grant, and this is the Retroll Podcast.

1:11.0

The Retroll Podcast.

1:15.0

Hey, everybody. Welcome to the podcast.

1:18.0

My name is Rich Roll. I am your host. You guys are the audience.

1:22.0

And today, you guys are in for quite a treat.

1:25.0

Because my guest is none other than organizational psychologist,

1:29.0

Ted Talker, extraordinaire, and multiple New York Times best-selling authors.

...

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