Scaling Up Excellence: Getting to More Without Settling for Less by Sutton Robert I. & Rao Huggy

Author:Sutton, Robert I. & Rao, Huggy [Sutton, Robert I.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780385347037
Publisher: The Doubleday Religious Publishing Group
Published: 2014-02-04T05:00:00+00:00

7. Hire People Prewired to Fit Your Mindset

As we’ve implied throughout this chapter, bringing in people who are prewired with personalities, values, and skills that mesh well with whatever mindset and moves you aim to scale can amplify your odds of successful scaling. The Danish consulting firm Specialisterne (the Specialists) is an extreme case: they’ve turned high-functioning autism into an advantage. Thorkil Sonne was inspired to start the firm after discovering that his son, who has autism, was adept at memory tasks and had an intense focus that helped him to flawlessly perform repetitive and tedious chores. Sonne realized that people like his son could excel at tasks such as data entry or software testing, even if their communication skills were weak.

So he started this consulting company, which now employs thirty-five high-functioning autistic people to do such exacting work for corporate clients. For example, one client is a cell phone company. Software glitches in new phones are uncovered by testers who execute lengthy scripts containing over two hundred detailed instruction sets; testers often get bored, take shortcuts, and make mistakes. Many, although not all, high-functioning autistic people excel at such tasks. Sonne describes people with disabilities as being prewired to master some tasks that the rest of us find difficult. He offers a lovely analogy: when dandelions pop up on a lawn, we call them weeds; but those same spring greens make for delightful salads. Similarly, some apparent weaknesses of autistic people turn out to be strengths for repetitive tasks that require extreme concentration.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.