Almost 25% of
company founders and business-builders believe that luck is a major factor in
their success. What’s most
surprising is that people generate their own luck. But lucky charms, amulets or
knocking on wood won’t do it.
Richard Wiseman, the British psychologist, has studied
luck from a scientific perspective, learning that it is not strictly random. Wiseman
finds that lucky people tend to be more skilled at creating and noticing chance
opportunities, they listen (pay attention) to their intuitive ideas, use
positive expectations and work hard to make lemonade out of lemons. They take a
resilient attitude toward life. If you know your psych, you recognize that
there are a lot of spin-offs from empirical research built into his “luck
factor theory,” beginning with the extensive research on the personal impact of
positive attitudes.
In addition, Wiseman finds that unlucky people are generally much more tense and anxious than lucky
people, and research has shown that anxiety disrupts people’s ability to
notice. On top of that, those same
unlucky people shy away from the very change and variety that would add to the
potential for good fortune.
In sum, Wiseman concludes that the differences between
the lucky and unlucky people are striking. Lucky people tend to imagine
spontaneously how the bad luck they encounter could have been worse and, in
doing so, they feel much better about themselves and their lives. This, in turn, helps keep their expectations
about the future high, and, increases the likelihood of them continuing to live
a lucky life.
The new role of
luck
Luck—or even better, serendipity--that aptitude for
making desirable discoveries by accident, assumes a far more important role in
this new economy. In the fascinating new book, The Power of Pull, by John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, and Lang
Davison, the authors emphasize the role and importance of serendipity. They define
it as the ability to find people and the knowledge they carry with them. In
today’s world, where you don’t even know what you’re looking for, finding and
attracting knowledge people is key.
Why is this so important? As Pull puts it, when we dive below the surface of events that get so
much attention—from both journalists and bloggers—we find that our foundations
are constantly shifting. For most of us there is an enormous distance between
where we are today and where we’ll need to be in order to fully take advantage
of changing opportunities. Not only do we have to keep our eye on the ball—that
long-term directional focus—but we all have to amplify our own efforts with the
resources of others.
Think about it: if you’re exploring new sets of problems,
new territories—what Hagel and buddies call an “edge,” it’s always very, very
helpful to learn from the experiences of others. Luck, what I like to think of
as “serendipitous encounters,” is not only the best way to gain insight and
resolutions, but often the only way to gain those insights. Indeed, as I
reflect on those “lucky encounters,” I celebrate my good fortune in the
richness, insight and even the blessing they’ve brought to my life and
profession.
Creating your own
serendipity
In “Pull” the authors argue strongly and wisely for the
“shaping” of serendipity rather than treating it as merely a matter of chance.
They talk about our all-too-common experiences of needing to know, but not
needing to know what you need, and what really exists, much less how to find it
or whom. MIT’s Sherry Turkle adds that as a result of internet search engines, fewer
and fewer of us really know how to engage in search outside of Googling the
internet and using its other search engines. Because the internet completely
manages search processes for us, knowledge of those processes has gone the way
of the Dodo bird, profoundly limiting resources beyond the internet. Indeed,
there seems to be little understanding, for example, that ideational and personal
search tends to flow in significantly evolutionary and haphazard formats and
that those processes can be manipulated for both ideas and people. Those who
grew up, trained in library skills, would understand the processes. But what
Hagel and colleagues do for us is a huge updating and revision of the 20th
century environments, knowledge and skills for the 21st century.
Serenditipitous
environments
Pull suggests five
environments for enhancing serendipity.
- Geographic
spikes—more people live in large urban centers than in any other part of
the globe. Different cities offer a wealth of options, providing gathering
places for increasing the probability of serendipitous encounters. Most of us
think automatically of Silicon Valley for software or Los Angeles for producers
and directors. One of my friends is interested in the future applications of
technology to food resources and has located in the Twin Cities precisely
because of UMN and the many food industries and resources in that area.
- Conferences—These
“moving circuses” are especially useful because participants have
self-filtered. They provide opportunities for meeting people with information,
making possible likely serendipity.
- Online
social networks—Virtual environments provide plenty of potential for
shaping serendipity. Admittedly, as these environments grow there is potential
for low-productivity encounters. Still, choosing the social platforms of
interest can provide insight into which initial contacts to pursue.
- Connection
platforms—these platforms help people connect around needs. Open-source
software sites such as SAP’s Developer Network are one kind. But eBay and
Amazon provide another kind of network. For example, I’ve picked up a couple
exceptional contacts simply by reading Amazon’s reviews on a niche book.
- Institutions—Many
institutions develop conference strategies, providing options for contacts with
people of similar interests. Universities, major industries and large corporations,
as well as national conference planners all fit into this category.
Serendipity (luck)
comes to those who. . . . know where and how to shape it. As the authors put it, to get better faster at whatever it is you do, you’ve got to be
supported by a broad array of complementary people and resources from which you
can pull what you need to raise your rate of performance improvement. And
what are the competencies you’ll need to achieve that? Well, that’s for another
blog.
Hagel, John III, John Seely Brown and Lang Davison, The
Power of Pull: How small moves, smartly made can set big things in motion. (New
York: Basic Books), 2010.
See especially: John Hagel's blog, The Edge
Turkle, Sherry, Alone Together: Why we expect more from
technology and less from each other. (New York: Basic Books), 2011.
Wiseman, Richard, The Luck Factor. The skeptical
inquirer, May/June 2003.
Flickr photo: tim geers
