Eric Bright's Key Ideas from Rebel Talent
by Francesca Gino

Exploitation involves improving and refining existing products and processes. This typically happens through a focus on efficiency and execution.

In contrast, the focus of exploration is on identifying new ideas and ways of doing things. This involves things like risk-taking and experimentation.

When we open ourselves to curiosity, we are more apt to reframe situations in a positive way. Curiosity makes us much more likely to view a tough problem at work as an interesting challenge to take on.

Curious people seem to have a natural inclination to ask questions – both at work and in life as we get older. To foster curiosity means to be open in saying “I don’t know but let’s find out” or encouraging people to ask “What if …?”

Counterfactual thinking means forgetting what you know and considering a situation from a fresh perspective. This way of thinking is also referred to as “the beginner's mindset” or “unlearning”.

Rebel talent will always try to broaden their perspective and thus mitigate the “curse of knowledge” (overestimating the amount of knowledge that we or others have).

Rebels know that to effectively leverage differences, their organizations should work beyond race and gender.

In the rebel mind, all differences matter, and diversity isn’t a quota system but a long-range vision for growth.

It means being able to be your ‘true self’ at work, and throwing this into the mix when tackling tough challenges or coming up with new ideas. This doesn’t mean that one’s ability to be authentic can be abused to behave negatively or to disrespect other people’s authentic selves. Instead, the value of authenticity and humor comes particularly in times of change, where it can help people thrive.

This is important in an environment for rebel talent to thrive in.

Members of psychologically safe teams aren’t afraid of admitting to errors and discussing these openly nor would you fear being embarrassed about asking unorthodox questions, ideas or doubts.

To be able to question, challenge, and innovate, we need to constantly frame our work around learning goals.

These learning goals can cover us developing our competence, acquiring new skills, or mastering new situations.