Chapter 3: The Ripple Effect - Collaboration and the Dynamics of Giving and Taking Credit

Summary Notes 

“It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others” (John Andrew Holmes, former US representative and senator)

George Meyer, a consummate giver, is one of the most successful people in show business.

George is the mastermind of much of the humor on The Simpsons. 

Geniuses tend to be takers: to promote their own interests, they “drain intelligence, energy, and capability” from others. 

Genius makers tend to be givers: they use their “intelligence to amplify the smarts and capabilities” of other people.

O Collaboration and Creative Character

Carolyn Omine, a longtime Simpsons writer and producer, says that Meyer “has a distinct way of looking at the world. It’s completely unique.”

In a study of architects, the creative architects stood out as substantially more “demanding, aggressive, and self-centered” than the comparison group. 

Takers have a knack for generating ideas and championing them in the face of opposition.

However, George Meyer, has been a giver throughout his career. He “loves to make people laugh, entertain people, and try to make the world a little better.”

He self-published a popular humor magazine called Army Man which made its way into the hands of an executive producer at the Simpsons.

George Meyer’s success highlights that givers can be every bit as creative as takers.

O Flying Solo

Frank Lloyd Wright the architect (a taker) was famous. His family motto was “truth against the world” (Seeing independence as a sign of strength).

Once creative, talented, and successful, his “taker” way of working left him isolated and he lacked access to talented apprentices.

Wright’s story exposes the gap between our natural tendencies to attribute creative success to individuals and the collaborative reality that underpins much truly great work.

**Our success depends more on others than we realize.

Peter Drucker - “Knowledge workers, unlike manual workers in manufacturing, own the means of production: they carry that knowledge in their heads and can therefore take it with them.” But carrying knowledge isn’t actually so easy.

In a study of top surgeons, researchers discover a remarkable pattern. Overall the surgeons didn’t get better with practice. They only got better at the specific hospital where they practiced.

**To reduce the risk of patient mortality, the surgeon needed relationships with specific surgical team members.

Similarly, for star stock analysts, their performance wasn’t portable to a different firm. Hiring stars is advantageous neither to stars themselves, in terms of their performance, nor to hiring companies in terms of their market value. 

*But instead of moving solo, if they moved with their teams, their performance was portable. 

*The star investment analysts and the cardiac surgeons depended heavily on collaborators who knew them well or had strong skills of their own. If Frank Lloyd Wright had been more of a giver than a taker, he could have avoided the 9 years in which his income and reputation plummeted.

O I wish I Could Hate You

*Givers reject the notion that interdependence is weak. Givers are more likely to see interdependence as a source of strength, a way to harness the skills of multiple people for a greater good.

Meyer recognized that if he could contribute effectively to the group, everyone would be better off, so he went out of his way to support his colleagues (e.g., making himself available to give feedback, etc.)

Meyer - “I just wanted to be a good soldier. When people weren't as excited, that’s when I felt I had to step up my game.”

He took on the tasks that are in the group’s best interest, not necessarily their own personal interests (like doing more rewriting rather than the first draft of an episode which allows a writer to put their creative stamp on it).

*‘On The Simpsons, I think George surrendered himself to the show”

**“Expedition behavior” - putting the group's needs first and caring about others as yourself. It’s not a zero-sum game. When you give it away, you gain more in response. The more he contributed to the success of his shows the more success there was for the whole team to share. 

*As a result, givers earn the respect of their collaborators (as in the case of doing his best work for less coveted guests). Takers no longer felt that they needed to compete with him, matchers felt that they owed him, and givers saw him as one of them.

*In addition to building goodwill, volunteering for unpopular tasks and offering feedback gave Meyer the chance to demonstrate his comedic gifts without leading colleagues to feel insecure. 

If talented people are also givers, they no longer have a target on their backs. Instead, givers are appreciated for their contributions to the group.

Meyer’s code of honor as: 1) Show up, 2) Work hard, 3) Be kind, and 4) Take the high road.

**Due to winning the trust of his colleagues, George is not afraid to say “No, this isn’t good enough. We can do better.”

When people act generously in groups, they earn idiosyncrasy credits - positive impressions that accumulate in the minds of group members.

**Groups reward individual sacrifice. 

**Givers get extra credit when they offer ideas that challenge the status quo.

Carolyn Omine - “When I think about George in a writers’ room, nice is not what I would say. He’s spicier than that. But when George is tough, you know it is only because he cares so much about getting it right.”

O Claiming the Lion’s Share of the Credit

George never took writing credits on The Simpsons, even though he was an idea machine.

People tend to come up with ideas and jealously guard them, but George would create ideas, give them to someone else and never take credit. There’s a crucial stretch of the Simpson over 10 years where he’s not credited with a single joke, even though he was responsible for a huge number of them.

**By giving away credit, Meyer compromised his visibility

** Meyer - “The thing about credit is that it’s not zero-sum. There’s room for everybody, and you’ll shine if other people are shining.”

Meyer’s longtime colleague Tim Long - “It makes me incredibly happy to extol George’s virtues, even if I’m going to embarrass him.”

Jonas Salk (the medical researcher who developed a polio vaccine in 1948) was a taker.

Jonas didn’t feel that his colleagues deserved credit (why?), and they were deeply hurt. 

He broke the “unwritten commandments” of scientific research, which included “Thou shalt give credit to others.” Thus he was shunned and unlike other prominent polio researchers, he never gained entrance to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences.

O The Responsibility Bias

*Partners overestimate their own contributions. 

The responsibility bias exaggerates our own contributions relative to others’ inputs (this is what Jonas Salk did). It’s a mistake to which takers are especially vulnerable, and it’s partially driven by the desire to see and present ourselves positively.

*We have more information about our own contributions than others. 

This is due to the information discrepancy. We see all of our own efforts, but we only witness a subset of our partners’ efforts.

**“Even when people are well intentioned, they tend to overvalue their own contributions and undervalue those of others.” (Reid Hoffman)

George Meyer was able to overcome the responsibility bias.

The Simpsons has contributed many words to the English lexicon (like “meh”).

Though Meyer likely invented “meh”, he didn’t care. As a giver, his focus was on achieving a collective result that entertained others, not on claiming personal responsibility for that result. 

**A lot of that stuff is just like a basketball assist…I think it’s good to get into the habit of saying, doing, and thinking in “we.”

Recognize what other people contributed. 

**Make a list of what your partner / boss / parent contributes BEFORE you estimate your own contribution. 

Givers like Meyer do this naturally: they take care to recognize what other people contribute.

George Meyer is incredibly tough on himself when things go badly, but quick to congratulate others when things go well. 

In the Simpsons rewrite room, being more forgiving of others than of himself helped Meyer get the best ideas out of others. 

**Psychological safety - the belief that you can take a risk without being penalized or punished.

Meyer specialized in the emotional support of other people. 

Carolyn Omine - “George does not mince words; he’ll come right out and tell you if he thinks the joke you pitched is dumb, but you never feel he’s saying you’re dumb.”

When you give Meyer a script to read, “it’s as if you just handed him a baby, and it’s his responsibility to tell you if your baby’s sick. He really cares about great writing - and about you.”

O The Perspective Gap

*When we’re not experiencing a psychologically or physically intense state, we dramatically underestimate how much it will affect us. 

**In collaborations, takers rarely cross the perspective gap. They’re so focused on their own viewpoints that they never end up seeing how others are reacting to their ideas and feedback. On the other hand, givers are motivated to benefit others, so they find ways to put themselves in other people’s shoes.

The wedding gift senders prefer to give unique gifts but the recipients actually prefer the gifts they solicited on their registries and wish lists. 

**To effectively help colleagues, people need to step outside their own frames of reference. 

Frank Lloyd Wright was undoubtedly a genius, but he wasn't a genius maker. 

George Meyer’s success had the opposite effect on his collaborators: it rippled, cascaded, and spread to the people around him. Meyer’s colleagues call him a genius, but it’s striking that he had also been a genius maker. Meyer inspires greatness in those around him.

Years later, Meyer is still working to lift his colleagues up. 

Group Reflections

Leadership JSU (Thu 11 AM EST)

Sang - The chapter challenges the corporate thinking that individual talent is the most important thing. Instead focus on how the group came to that overall contribution. How do we become culture makers and reward collaborative spirit within our organizations?

John - Agreed. Sometimes people just follow rules without understanding the overall goals.

George - Selecting the right group of people to work with is very important.

Stephanie - Perspective gap is quite helpful.

Sang - Givers are people you want to spend time with. Givers are psychologically integrated, emotionally healthy, and more self-aware. As they are emotionally more secure, they have even more impact in their communities.

Mona - Is it always possible to be a giver in all situations? How important is it to have the wrong people off the bus?

Dorothea - Most examples of givers in the chapter are male. Women’s experience is different. It’s not that simple.

Rick - (In responding to Mona) Are they sharks or not? How do you out the shark? What questions would you ask during the interviews to spot them?

Mona - Adam Grant would suggest asking “Whose career have you helped?” CEOs or everyday people?

Jet - What has been the highlight of your career? Self-success or team success?

Rick - For me, ask not what your country / company / team can do for you; Ask what you can do for your country / company / team. 

Dorothea - You can also ask in terms of failures.

Mike - Per Dorothea, how do you protect yourself?

Kate - On detecting sharks, it may be less about asking questions but doing reference checks