Malcolm Gladwell does not need my recommendation to sell books. His new book, Outliers: The Story of Success, follows the bestsellers The Tipping Point and Blink.
For those in Psychology or Human Resource Management, some of the material Gladwell covers will be familiar. The reader will also notice that he often chooses to leave out research that contradicts his hypotheses.
Nevertheless, I believe all of Gladwell’s books, but especially Outliers, should be considered must reads for those in Human Resources. The book is about success, expertise, or high performance. Gladwell offers an interesting synthesis of research suggesting that multiple factors may relate to success.
Despite the underlying theme of success, this is almost three books rather than one. If there is something to criticize, other than ignoring contradictory research, it is that there seems to be something of a disconnect between the three major sections. The first section deals with the impact of birth year, or generation, on success. The second looks at the impact of ethnicity, culture, or location on success. The third takes a very personal look at Gladwell’s family and personal background. The first section is the strongest in terms of interesting writing and amazing science. The third section is strong on emotion and drawing a connection to the author.
Basically, the book looks at the unusual impact seemingly chance factors have on success. This includes birth year or generation and location or ethnicity. This does not mean that the argument is made that it is luck. Rather, Gladwell’s argument is that these factors lead to years and years of hard work, which then leads to success.
Overall, the book tells a fascinating story of what contributes to expertise and high levels of performance. It also fits in well with the current interest in generations.
A complete side note: On the back of the book there is a quote from the New York Times concerning “Gladwell’s theories could be used to run businesses more effectively…” Gladwell is an excellent writer and translator of psychological research, but the theories are those of others.
