ROOKIE SMARTS: WHY LEARNING BEATS KNOWING IN THE NEW GAME OF WORK

Veteran, seasoned leaders are not automatically the best for any given project, Wiseman says. She explains “rookie smarts,” in which a less experienced person outperforms a veteran, getting around the “experience trap.” Wiseman and her research team “studied more than 400 workplace scenarios, comparing how inexperienced versus experienced professionals approach a particular type of work.” The article describes four distinct modes of rookie smarts that her analysis revealed: Backpacker, Hunter‐Gatherer, Firewalker, and Pioneer. “If you are stuck climbing your way up a corporation,” she writes, “it might be time to get off the career ladder and get onto a learning curve.”