Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things by Adam Grant

Adam Grant’s Hidden Potential redefines our capacities and potential. He provides a very well-structured narrative supported by strong scientific research findings, real-life examples, and inspiring stories. It is much more than a self-development book to me. I re-read my notes with a philosophical compass lens to summarize my key takeaways. I am convinced that the core ideas from the book could (and should) be integrated into the fabric of our societies for a better future.

Idea in One Sentence

Our capacities are not defined by our innate talent but by how much we are dedicated to growth and creating support structures and opportunity systems.

Main Takeaway

The potential is not about where we reached but about how far we traveled and how much distance we covered. We can travel more by developing and honing the right character skills, building and leveraging the right scaffolding (support) structures for ourselves and others, and entire opportunity systems where everyone can shine and rise as per their hidden potential.

Key Takeaways

1. On Character

Character does not set and retains its plasticity, and it is different than personality. Personality is more about how you are inclined to think and act. Character is the ability to put your values before your inclinations. Embracing discomfort, proactive curiosity, and putting imperfection over perfection are some key character skills that would help unleash our “Hidden Potential”.

Embracing Discomfort:

Looking for, embracing, and being comfortable with discomfort is pivotal to catalyzing growth. ?

Deliberate immersion in unfamiliarity and discomfort is what enables growth, not the genetic wiring.

Intriguing emphasis on procrastination is driven by the act of avoiding unpleasant feelings with the activity that you are procrastinating. It is not about effective time management and/or laziness. (This reminded me of his Ted Talk, Adam Grant: The surprising habits of original thinkers | TED Talk)

“The best cure to feeling uncomfortable about making mistakes is to make more mistakes.” -Adam Grant

Proactive Curiosity:

For learning, cognitive skills are necessary but not enough. Learning also requires curiosity, which is driven by a genuine interest in growth.

I found Grant’s description of “absorptive capacity” simple yet very practical. If you have these two key elements, you can significantly boost your absorptive capacity:

1. Goal for growth (not to satisfy ego)
2. Proactive curiosity (I am sure we all can think of certain individuals with phenomenal absorptive capacities, clearly differentiating than others. When I think of these two elements, I can literally trace them and see them in those with phenomenal absorptive capacities)

Asking for advice is better than asking for feedback to be the better versions of ourselves. (Because 'advice' focuses on how we can become better while 'feedback' focuses on how well we did in the past)

It is important whose advice you are asking though. Pick those who know you well, who care about you, and who know the field they are providing advice on.

Imperfection over Perfection:

Perfectionism would work in familiar, repetitive situations where things are more predictable. However, the current world we are living in is much more ambiguous. Looking and aiming for “excellence” rather than “flawless” would work better in new, ambiguous situations and problems. (This reminded me of David Epstein’s “Range” and his kind vs. wicked problems)

Taking the imperfectionist’s approach is also helpful to allocate the right focus on the things that matter most.

Wabi-sabi (the art of seeing and appreciating the beauty in imperfection)

2. On Scaffolding

Grant emphasized the power of what he calls “harmonious passion” over “obsessive compulsion”. There are numerous examples from elite musicians and athletes to support this. (Similar to “Flow” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi)

Reimagining the routine from “I have to” to “I want to” is transformative to boost growth. Adam Grant proposes bringing structure to activities to bring joy to skill development; he calls it “Deliberate Play”. It is beyond what we call “gamification”, something I will definitely try with my son’s soccer team, where I am the assistant/technical coach.

Confusing competence with confidence is risky. We seem to conflate both, especially when we are choosing leaders.

Seeing the obstacles as “challenges”, rather than “threats” will produce better results as challenges are motivating, but threats are discouraging.

This is where Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset is taken a step further with “scaffolding”.

3. On Systems

Most education systems make the mistake of identifying and promoting the best and brightest students. The better approach is to provide opportunities to grow to every student as per their “Hidden Potential.” The Finnish education system is presented as a best practice, with their popular mantra of “We can’t afford to waste a brain.” (I love this!)

The relationship among practices, values, and beliefs is very effectively explored in the education culture context. Our beliefs (deeply held assumptions on how the world works) shape our values (guiding principles to define what we value and want most), and our values dictate our daily practices. ?

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” -Benjamin Franklin

All students should get top teachers, not only the top students!

Team members’ prosocial skills are more important than their cognitive skills for better collective intelligence. Prosocial skills are driven by appreciating teamwork, recognizing each other’s importance for collective outcome, and excelling at collaborating with others. (For the best team results, always beware of the “bad apples”, even a single one can make the team fail)

We choose leaders often based on who talks the most rather than their actual leadership skills. (Known as babble effect.) Research shows that people who command the most airtime are promoted regardless of expertise (Mistaking confidence for competence)

Extravert leaders might do well when their team is reactive, but not with proactive teams, with whom introvert leaders work better.

Grant advocates for a “lattice system” instead of a “ladder system” in organizations. In a lattice system, individuals have access to multiple leaders to help them and lift them. (vs. individuals’ line managers having too much to say about the individuals’ performances, potentials, promoting or shutting their ideas…etc.)

Past performance is not a great indicator of future potential. It is critical to recognize how far the people travelled, how much distance they covered, rather than what peaks they achieved.

At the end of the book, Adam Grant provides a thorough 40 practical actions to unlock “Hidden Potential”. (As he did in his previous book, Think Again, which I find very helpful and appreciate)

In overall, Hidden Potential is a very good and highly practical guide to unleashing our latent capacities and unearthing our hidden gems in a very structured and easy-to-follow flow. It is convincing that our potential is not static but dynamic, which I like as I am biased by my tendency to appreciate the Heraclitean / Nietzschean way of thinking. I believe Adam Grant’s ideas and principles in this book are not only about better individual growth or more effective teamwork within organizations but, more importantly, can help enable and progress towards more elevated and cohesive societies. ?

05 January 2024

Kaan Demiryurek