Rebel Ideas: The Power of Diverse Thinking

He's a journalist, too, and the case studies he shares in "Rebel Ideas" show his strong research and storytelling skills.

Syed is also a member of the Football Association's Technical Advisory Board in the U.K., which gave him the idea for this book. The board was assembled to crack the biggest mystery in English sport. Why does the national soccer team – full of world-class players – always underperform on the big stage of global competitions?

This board includes a tech start-up founder, an educationalist, and the first female commander at a military college. Syed talks about feeling exhilarated when someone in the group says something unknown to the others. He calls these insights "rebel ideas." They shine light onto the problem that a group of soccer buffs never could.

Syed realized that diversity is powerful. But he wanted to understand why and how it works – beyond the world of sport. In "Rebel Ideas," he's looking for the science of diversity.

Over the course of seven chapters, Syed covers many examples of diverse thinking. But three stories provide the hook for his narrative, and we'll touch on all three in this podcast.

So, keep listening to discover what 9/11 can teach us about the dangers of "culture fit," how talking could have saved lives on Mount Everest, and how empathy can stop the hate of white supremacists.

The terror attack on the World Trade Center is a defining moment in modern history. "Rebel Ideas" opens with an account of the run-up to the attack. Syed catalogs the warning signs – some of which the CIA was aware of.

But for Syed, inquests into why the intelligence community couldn't connect the dots miss the point. The CIA, he argues, was never in a position to spot the threat.

Since its formation in the 1940s, CIA agents have looked pretty similar: white, middle- or upper-class men from the same handful of universities.

And the agents don't just look alike. In picking what it considered to be the "best and brightest," the CIA hired people with the same skillsets, perspectives, and beliefs. And the same biases, both conscious and unconscious.

This phenomenon is called "homophily." It's when we surround ourselves with people who look and think like us. When others agree with us, speak our lingo, and laugh at our jokes, it makes us feel good.

To find solutions to complex issues, you need diverse groups of people who can look at things differently, even if that makes you feel a little less comfortable.

Different people might have realized that footage of Osama bin Laden addressing followers from a cave wasn't a sign of weakness, but a powerful use of religious imagery. Or that terrorists believe they won't win on the battlefield, but in paradise. For Syed, the CIA shared a vast, collective blind spot to the dangers of Al-Qaeda.

But what about you and me? In the civilian world, homophily comes from the schools we go to, the "culture fit" of a new job, and the social networks we join. These all create what Syed calls "clones," and this is the topic of the next chapter, "Rebels Versus Clones."

Here, Syed looks into why people challenge the norm, and cites studies showing that immigrants are especially good at this. Take Elon Musk, Arianna Huffington and Walt Disney, for instance. They're all immigrants and successful entrepreneurs.

So, how come? Well, they can think outside established frames of reference. They can also combine ideas from their old and new cultures. And if people like this can flourish as independent entrepreneurs, imagine the power of a team, department or company full of rebels!

When outsiders connect and share different perspectives, their ideas don't just add up. They multiply! It's the reason why Silicon Valley replaced Route 128 in Massachusetts as the world's tech hub.

Outside the office, Californian techies met up at coffee shops. They bragged and brainstormed. But employees of companies dotted along Route 128 didn't have places to socialize. Even worse, their firms isolated themselves, seeing competition as a threat.

Route 128 companies had people with ability and diversity. But that's not enough, as Syed explores in the next big story of the book.

In 1996, an experienced team of climbers attempted to reach the summit of Mount Everest. The group included guides, Sherpas, an American author, a pathologist, and a Japanese businesswoman.

A storm hit when the climbers were in the mountain's "Danger Zone," and eight of the climbers lost their lives. Survivors wrote books about the event. Commentators filmed documentaries. And Hollywood even made a blockbuster movie, which you may have seen. But for Syed, they all miss the reason for the tragedy.

As talented and diverse as the group was, they didn't share perspectives that could have saved lives. Like an airline pilot who was climbing that day. He spotted tell-tale storm clouds below the climbers. But he didn't say anything at the time.

So, why did they all keep quiet? The night before the climb, expedition leader Rob Hall told the group not to question his decision-making on the mountain. So they didn't.

When the storm hit, the climbers did try to save one another. For instance, mountaineer Anatoli Boukreev made three trips from basecamp to the cliff face to rescue survivors. People risked their lives, but they weren't prepared to question Halls' authority and the poor decisions of the guides.

Why? For Syed, the group fell into a "dominance hierarchy." Since the first Homo sapiens, alpha individuals have sought to dominate, and followers have found comfort in being led. This survival strategy works when you need to fight threats from animals. But it falls short in complex situations that require collective intelligence.

Trouble is, our brains are still hardwired to think like our ancestors. In business meetings, for example, hierarchies keep some team members from speaking up. They don't want to show dissent by giving alternative views. Or they parrot what leaders want to hear. This kills rebel ideas.

Studies show the bigger the meeting, the fewer individuals contribute. It's called the "uneven communication problem," and it stifles creativity.

Thankfully, hierarchies can also be built on respect, Syed says, in a section on "prestige leaders." Instead of seeking to dominate, these leaders solicit the views of others, show empathy, and create "psychological safety." That's when everyone feels comfortable sharing ideas. In short, they realize that wise decisions need input from the whole group.

Syed gives the example of Amazon's "Golden Silence." This is when meetings begin quietly, with attendees reading a summary of the agenda. That gives people time to think before they're influenced by others. It lets them form their own, unique perspectives to share.

In the third and final big story of "Rebel Ideas," Syed tells us about white supremacist Derek Black. You could say Black was born into the movement. He was home-schooled by his parents – both members of the Ku Klux Klan. His dad was a Grand Wizard.

By his teens, Black managed the world's first major hate site – Stormfront. He later hosted his own radio show that promoted radical right-wing ideas. Smart and articulate, Black became the poster boy for white supremacists.

His videos popped up in people's "echo chambers." That's when information circulates within groups rather than between them, like getting your news from social media and people who already support your way of thinking. Add to that algorithms that personalize our internet searches, further limiting our access to different viewpoints.

Thing is, when we are exposed to others' views, we often don't trust them. That's because the media we consume – and people like Derek Black – delegitimize other commentators with different ideas.

At age 21, Black attended the New College of Florida. At a bigger college, he might have found more people on the far right, reinforcing his own echo chamber. But this smaller institution forced him to socialize with students from different backgrounds.

One of these was Matthew Stevenson, an Orthodox Jew. Black concealed his political beliefs, and the two struck up an unlikely friendship. Even more remarkable, when news of Black's political beliefs broke on campus, Stevenson decided to stay in touch with him.

Stevenson put himself in Black's shoes and asked himself: if he'd been brought up in the same conditions, would he be any different? He showed empathy by inviting the now ostracized Black to his weekly dinner parties. And he asked his guests to avoid talking politics.

Over the semester, Black talked – and developed trust – with Stevenson and his friends. The group finally broached politics, and one student brought in scientific papers that challenged far-right claims. It wasn't the first time Black had heard these theories, but now he trusted the people making the counterargument.

Slowly but surely, Black came to realize that the evidence behind white supremacism didn't stack up. Enlightened, one of its most high-profile members turned his back on the movement.

This story points to a bigger idea. For diversity to work, you need individuals with a giving attitude. In a study of medical students, people who were generous with their time and insights outperformed the "takers" – those who absorbed ideas but gave nothing back to their peers.

A willingness to give works long-term, too. In another study, 200 executives were asked to reach out to people they hadn't communicated with in years, for help with a project. These out-of-touch contacts brought better ideas than the peers the execs worked with every day. Because they were outside the circle, they brought fresher insights to the table.

In the final chapter of "Rebel Ideas," Syed zooms out to look at how diversity sheds light on human evolution.

He reveals how our ancestral rivals – the Neanderthals – actually had bigger brains than Homo sapiens. Individually, they were smarter. But they were also cut off from one another geographically.

Homo sapiens lived in larger, more densely populated groups. This enabled them to be more social than Neanderthals. They shared ideas, and passed on what they learned to the next generation.

Then natural selection kicked in – favoring good learners over smarter individuals. The result? Homo sapiens evolved greater intelligence. In this way, big ideas led to big brains, and not the other way around.

For Syed, it's an epic vindication of how we can achieve much more as a diverse group than we ever can in isolation.

So what's our last word on "Rebel Ideas?"

It's a riveting read, packed with fascinating material we didn't have time to cover here. But it's the big three stories around 9/11, Everest, and white supremacists that Syed really gets his teeth into.

These are great case studies, but they do force others to the sidelines. For instance, Syed ends the book with how "blind hiring" can overcome unconscious bias in recruitment. And how "shadow boards" of young people can advise execs on key decisions. It's a shame these topics just get a page or two each, as they provide useful, workable examples.

Syed rounds up "Rebel Ideas" with another look at the CIA. After the 9/11 failings, the agency hired an African-American Muslim called Yaya Fanusie as an economic and counterterrorism analyst. He was instrumental in taking down Anwar al-Awlaki – a terrorist billed as the next bin Laden.

Despite this, a 2015 report found there was still an alarming lack of diversity in the CIA. And this is a sign of a bigger, more fundamental problem.

Before you pick up "Rebel Ideas," you'll probably know that diversity is important. After reading it, you'll also know why it's important.

But how do you create diverse teams? The fact that the CIA – and boardrooms around the world – remain largely white, male domains shows that they're not yet getting it right. And as interesting as "Rebel Ideas" is – and we do highly recommend it – you won't find all the answers here, either.

"Rebel Ideas: The Power of Diverse Thinking," by Matthew Syed, is published by John Murray.

That's the end of this episode of Mind Tools Books Insights from Emerald Works. Thanks for listening. Click here to buy the book from Amazon.