Adam Grant
41 statements across 4 episodes · 9 bullish · 10 bearish · 1 people on the record · first statement Sep 21, 2017 by Adam Grant · said 12 times in 8 episodes since 2017 · across every show →
On the record as a speaker too: Adam Grant's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.
Mentions by year
brought up most by Margaret Heffernan (3), Todd Simkin (2), Ray Dalio (2), Neil Pasricha (1), Laurie Santos (1), Chris Voss (1), Charlie Hoehn (1), Aaron Dignan (1)
tap a year for its mentions
2024 1 mention in 1 episode
2023 1 mention in 1 episode
2022 1 mention in 1 episode
2021 2 mentions in 1 episode
2019 1 mention in 1 episode
2018 4 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
2017 2 mentions in 1 episode
Everything said about Adam Grant, oldest first
Sep 21, 2017 neutral
Grant: Giver performance extremes are driven by strategy, not cognitive ability
“And you know, there is a piece of the story that's explained by ability, but even after controlling for cognitive ability tests for various kinds of skill metrics the, you know, sort of the polarization of giver performance held up and it turned out to be much…”
Sep 21, 2017 positive
Sep 21, 2017 negative
Grant: Silicon Valley only celebrates failure retrospectively after achieving success
“Silicon Valley is, is well known for celebrating failure. Although, you know, people are usually only comfortable celebrating failure after they've achieved success which is sort of a paradox. Cause then you don't get to see any ordinary people failing or peop…”
Sep 21, 2017
Sep 21, 2017 positive
Grant: Expertise develops through communities of practice, not reading books
“You don't develop expertise just by, you know, by reading a book. Cause a lot of the expertise you need isn't written down anywhere yet. It's too early or it's just tacit knowledge where, you know, people in a profession haven't yet even figured out how to art…”
Sep 21, 2017
Sep 21, 2017 negative
Sep 21, 2017 neutral
Sep 21, 2017
Sep 21, 2017 positive
Grant: Juggling a few ideas boosts creativity via subconscious incubation
“The one caveat I want to put on that though, is we also know that, you know, very frequently sort of subconscious thought is more creative than conscious thought. You've probably tracked the Dijkstra house work on this at some point. And you know, I think that…”
Sep 21, 2017
Grant: Highly creative high schoolers grow up with half a household rule
“If you look at highly creative high schoolers, for example,
On average they had about half a rule in their household, whereas they're sort of, I don't know how that works, but averages are misleading in many ways.
Not just this one.
There you go.
but you know…”
Sep 21, 2017 neutral
Grant: Givers are overrepresented at the best and worst performance extremes
“And, you know, I finally, as I took a closer look at the data, I found that, you know, for salespeople, for engineers and even medical professionals the givers were overrepresented on both extremes of the success spectrum. They made up a disproportionate numbe…”
Sep 21, 2017 negative
Grant: Comparing yourself to strangers sets unrealistic expectations of greatness
“Yeah, I think, I mean, I think that one of the most dangerous things you can do is you can compare yourself to anybody who you don't know. Because, like, you know, they're, you're only gonna have access if, you know, if they've been careful about having pride …”
Sep 21, 2017
Sep 21, 2017 neutral
Jun 1, 2021 negative
Managers reject structured hiring because algorithms threaten their reliance on intuition
“I think it's less about the time and more about the gospel of intuition. Too many hiring managers are afraid that if they essentially delegate, I mean, this is a more algorithmic, it's a more algorithmic approach to decision making, right? If I delegate my kno…”
Jun 1, 2021 positive
Asking for proof criteria grounds disagreements in agreed-upon methodology
“It refocuses the conversation in the realm of evidence as opposed to just opinion, right? And so when I ask them to tell me what a well-designed study is going to look like, we can then agree on what valid methods are, and once I tell them what the findings ar…”
Jun 1, 2021 negative
Overwhelming people with airtight logic deprives them of owning their choices
“I had overwhelmed her with rational arguments, and she didn't agree, but she couldn't fight back. And my first reaction, Shane, was, yes! Because I thought that was my job as a social scientist, right? I want to come with airtight logic and rigorous data and m…”
Jun 1, 2021
Adam Grant: People Resist Rethinking Because Fragile Knowledge Threatens Identity and Status
“There are probably multiple reasons for it, but I think Two of the reasons why people are really hesitant to rethink things are one, it makes the world feel much more unpredictable. You know, if my views aren't fixed, then who am I? And how do I navigate a rea…”
Jun 1, 2021
Preaching and prosecuting freeze beliefs while politicking merely appeases tribes
“The danger of preaching and prosecuting is that you don't change your mind. You're right. Everyone else is wrong. And so you might be very motivated to get other people to rethink, but your views are frozen. They're set in stone. And politicking is interesting…”
Jun 1, 2021 negative
Trying to understand 'the other side' reinforces harmful binary thinking
“I really came out rethinking my view that what we need to do is, is better understand the other side, which has been so much the political narrative. I think actually that's part of the problem, not the solution, because there is no charged issue that's ever s…”
Jun 1, 2021 positive
Listing specific conditions to change opinions prevents locking into unhelpful beliefs
“When he forms a tentative opinion, will actually make a list of the conditions under which he would change his mind. And I've actually started doing this over the past few months because I don't want to get locked into something that was, you know, maybe sort …”
Jun 1, 2021 negative
Pro sports teams assess under ten attributes despite hundreds driving performance
“I I've worked with a whole bunch of professional sports teams over the past few years on this exact problem. And they're at best assessing on, you know, maybe seven or eight attributes when there might be 200 that are going to drive people's future performance…”
Jun 1, 2021
Organizations must stop rewarding lucky outcomes resulting from bad decision-making processes
“And I think we need to stop rewarding good outcomes with bad processes because that's just luck. That's kind of a boneheaded decision that, that happened to turn out well. And we need to start either celebrating or at least normalizing good processes with bad …”
Jun 1, 2021 negative
Comparing candidates to each other instead of predefined criteria ruins hiring
“Most basic mistake that people make in these kinds of decisions is they don't consider criteria before looking at candidates, right? So they interview their three people, and they start to compare them, as opposed to saying, no, I should have an independent st…”
Jun 1, 2021 negative
Holistic single-interviewer evaluations trigger confirmation bias and desirability bias
“We know that it's better to go up to three or four empirically. In too many cases also it's each interviewer's job to make an overall assessment of the candidate, which makes it too easy to decide you like someone, and then confirmation bias and desirability b…”
Jun 1, 2021
Treating personal views as hypotheses increases mental flexibility and truth-seeking
“And so I think we could all get better at thinking more like scientists to say, you know what? Your views, they're actually just theories, right? You could kind of make them into hypotheses, and then you could run little experiments in your life to figure out …”
Jun 1, 2021
Pride in knowledge triggers confirmation bias and traps people in overconfidence
“The basic idea is we start by being proud of something that we think we know. And that leads us then to feel a lot of conviction. That kind of launches us into confirmation bias, where we look for information that confirms our expectations, as well as desirabi…”
Jun 1, 2021 positive
The most creative people start projects quickly but finish them slowly
“The most creative people are not the procrastinators like me who dive right in or the procrastinators who wait till the last minute. They're the people who are quick to start, but slow to finish somewhere in the middle of that spectrum.”
Jun 1, 2021
People should listen less to individuals the more certain they are
“We should stop confusing confidence for competence, right? Just because somebody is, is sure of an opinion does not mean they actually know what they're talking about. And in fact, anybody who is, is familiar with the Dunning-Kruger effect will know that the m…”
Jun 1, 2021
Organizations should shift to process accountability to encourage thoughtful decision-making
“What a lot of the research on this suggests is that we want to shift to process accountability, not just outcome accountability, and ask people to really think seriously about, okay, how would I know that this is a thorough and thoughtful decision process as o…”
Jun 1, 2021
Psychological safety means trusting you won't be punished for challenging beliefs
“Psychological safety is knowing that other people are going to treat you with respect and trusting that if you go out on a limb and say something uncomfortable or challenge a deep-seated belief, that you are not going to be punished for that.”
Jun 1, 2021
Voicing opinions aloud incurs a responsibility to remain open to changing them
“If you keep your opinion to yourself, if you decide to say it out loud, then I think you have a responsibility to be open to changing your mind in the face of better logic or stronger data. And so I think if you're willing to voice an opinion, you should also …”
Jun 1, 2021 negative
Jun 1, 2021 positive
Dec 21, 2021
Adam Grant: Write down conditions that would change your tentative opinions
“When he forms a tentative opinion, will actually make a list of the conditions under which he would change his mind. And I've actually started doing this over the past few months because I don't want to get locked into something that was, you know, maybe sort …”
Dec 21, 2021 positive
Adam Grant: Identity should be anchored in values rather than beliefs
“I think that for me, an identity is not about what you believe, it's about what you value. And so I want to have a set of principles. For me, my highest values are generosity, excellence, integrity, and freedom. And I am completely flexible on the best ways to…”
Dec 21, 2021 positive
Adam Grant: Voicing an opinion obligates openness to changing it
“You're entitled to your own opinion. If you keep your opinion to yourself, if you decide to say it out loud, then I think you have a responsibility to be open to changing your mind in the face of better logic or stronger data. And so I think if you're willing …”
Nov 7, 2023
Grant: Treat personal opinions as hypotheses rather than fixed truths
“I think we could all get better at thinking more like scientists to say, you know what, your views, they're actually just theories, right? You could kind of make them into hypotheses, and then you could run little experiments in your life to figure out whether…”
Nov 7, 2023
Grant: Group belonging provides a psychological terror management function
“One of the most robust findings in psychology over the past three decades is that belonging to a unique group actually serves a terror management function. That it helps you avoid threats to your own mortality or at least it makes you worry less about what mig…”
Nov 7, 2023
Grant: Overly certain leaders pose risks by clinging to outdated visions
“Anybody who is, is familiar with the Dunning-Kruger effect will know that the more sure people are of their opinions, the more Hesitant we should be to listen to them, right? But there's something very intoxicating about following someone who believes they've …”