Give it all you’ve got- a book review by Pauline Tarrant
Have a think about the people in your organisation, who is a giver, a constant helper? Maybe they aren’t a great performer, in fact Adam Grant reveals that the ‘givers’ in an organisation are often so caught up in helping others that they fail against their own goals.
The behaviour of ‘givers’ is contrasted with that of ‘matchers’ (constantly seeking the quid pro quo approach) and the ‘takers’ who do give in some form, but only when they can get more by doing so. The takers are often those who are very good at managing up, and for a while they can be highly successful.
But a funny thing came of the research, over longer periods of time the takers weren’t the highest performers. Enron provides the perfect example of this.
Now Enron got pretty big and the guy at the top was very successful for a while so it could seem tempting to take this approach, in fact the culture in your organisation may be ‘every man for himself (or herself)’. But ‘these times they are a changing’. The advent of social media opens up our reputations to the scrutiny of the world and those people in ‘take’ mode will soon find any ‘fake generosity’ is uncovered.
So are the ‘matchers’ the winners in this brave new world? Again it’s a no, they sit in the middle ground hampered by only doing for others what they will do for them. As ‘marchers’ expect a return on investment they need to understand when they will get this restricting their relationships to short term exchanges of ‘good deeds’.
And the winner is….the givers! Over the longer terms those people who give openly with no expectation of return are the ones that command the highest levels of respect – others want to do business with these people as they know that a ‘giver’ is true to their word.
So why were the givers at the bottom of the pile? Well there are some ‘giving’ factors you need to understand to avoid becoming a doormat. To find out what they are you will just need to read the book – Give and Take by Adam Grant is available as an audiobook, from your local bookstore or as an ebook. Happy reading/listening!
Thanks to Pauline Tarrant for this review.
Adam Grant’s take aways on his book (or “practice what you preach”)
In what can only be described as a “practice what you preach”, Adam personally responded to a request for what are the takeaways from his book. This is his response:
“..Thank you for reading my book—it means a lot to me, and I hope it didn’t put you to sleep.
If I had to boil the book down to a few takeaways, they would be:
1. The most meaningful and sustainable success comes to people who help others succeed.
2. You don’t have to be Mother Teresa or Gandhi to be a giver; we can all do more five-minute favours.
3. Part of being a successful giver is being a good receiver: if you never seek help from others, you’ll miss out on meaningful support, and;
4. You’ll deprive the people in your life of the joy of giving.
I love reading “big idea” books about behavior, work, and social life, as well as fiction.
— Favorite idea books include A Whole New Mind (Dan Pink), Mistakes Were Made, But Not By Me (Carol Tavris & Elliot Aronson), The Geography of Bliss (Eric Weiner), Quiet (Susan Cain), Outliers (Malcolm Gladwell), and The Paradox of Choice (Barry Schwartz).
— Favorite fiction: Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card), The Zero Hour (Joseph Finder), The Janson Directive (Robert Ludlum), and of course Harry Potter.
Cheers,
Adam.”
Thanks Adam!
