Blog Post 1: Opposites Attract

We have all heard the saying “opposites attract.”  However, after reading “Opposites Attract” by Katharine Mieszkowski, the mental picture I associate with this saying has been expanded beyond romantics to the workplace. Indeed, the concept of intentionally hiring opposites to drive design creativity is fascinating and unique. But that is exactly the approach that Jerry Hirshberg took in building his team at the Nissan Design International (NDI) facility he started in 1979. While I am sure this concept was somewhat of an experiment when Jerry initially hired his first “divergent pair” of employees, the results and benefits of doing so have probably far exceeded what Hirshberg thought possible when he stepped out on a limb to make it a reality.

I think many companies today could benefit from modeling, at least in part, the principle that Hirshberg has turned into an organizing principle at NDI. Too often I get the impression that everyone is just a “yes” person when it comes to meetings with their boss or working on company initiatives. In my opinion, many shun someone playing the “devil’s advocate” when it comes to projects and initiatives at work. They feel offended when they ideas and projects are called into question. As a result, it seems that even when individuals know of problems or reasons why a given initiative will not succeed, they fear going against the flow and challenging the mainstream thinking at the time. However, I think every team project and every company decision would be made stronger and more successful if there was at least one or two individuals who were specifically placed on the project to prove why the project or initiative was not worth pursuing and would fail. Such individuals would help illuminate unseen flaws and risks in the original project and as a result allow risk mitigation strategies to be included in the final project or initiative. This would in turn significantly increase the likely hood that the project or initiative will succeed. So, while most companies are not able to hire everyone in pairs due to limited resources (i.e. budgets and headcount restraints), I feel that all companies would reap significant benefit from having at least one or two opposites on every major project or initiatives the company is pursuing.