Why Every Office Needs an Outsider 81
Research has shown that having an oddball team member not only gives you someone to make fun of, but also leads to better decision making. Researcher Katie Liljenquist, says having "socially distinct newcomers" on a team can help it perform at a higher level. Team tension is crucial, and shaking up the same old crowd is the way to create it. "You can imagine if you work in an office and you've got this outsider like Dwight Schrute who walks in and a lot of his ideas resonate with you. Your fellow in-group members are hearing this and thinking, 'Wait, you agree with Dwight?' That can be really uncomfortable and socially threatening," she says.
It's also nice.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It's also nice.... (Score:4, Funny)
another scapegoat that you can blame stuff on too
Ah, Tibor, [wikia.com] how many times have you saved my butt?
They're called testers (Score:3, Insightful)
And there's more than enough of them!
me? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:me? (Score:4, Insightful)
There is one common element in all your failed relationships and careers...
You...
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Oh dear.
It's high school all over again!! Ahhhh!!
Terrible camera work (Score:4, Interesting)
Whoever was shooting that video, please... put down the camera and walk away. You clearly don't know what you are doing, and it sickens us to watch you. Either that or take your anti-spasmodics. I don't know how you managed to do it, but the most interesting bits - the stopping and starting - you managed to effectively miss. Did you even know what your subject was or why it would be interesting? Apparently not. Go home, please.
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No kidding. One can jury rig a steady-cam (Stick + Counterweight = steady-cam) for like $15.00. Even if you only shoot video casually for shits and giggles you should have one. If you intend to publish it to a real audience then for god's sake make one.
Or spend $850 on a Merlin and honestly get your money's worth on the first shoot if you're a "professional".
Dwight Schrute (Score:5, Insightful)
"You can imagine if you work in an office and you've got this outsider like Dwight Schrute who walks in and a lot of his ideas resonate with you. Your fellow in-group members are hearing this and thinking, 'Wait, you agree with Dwight?' That can be really uncomfortable and socially threatening."
Socially threatening because Dwight Schrute is a sociopathic cat killer who delights in blocking fire exits and pulling the alarm. A better choice could have been chosen. Michael, for instance.
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The cat was sick. It was a MERCY KILLING!
Whoever modded this troll - I'm sorry, but you sir, are a moron.
False. (Score:4, Funny)
Alright! Who put my stapler in the Jello again!
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Outsiders don't have to be assholes (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Outsiders don't have to be assholes (Score:5, Interesting)
While I also agree that Dwight is a poor example, sometimes the outsider does have to be an asshole.
The only way I've found to break through an echo chamber is by being enough of a jerk that everyone gets jolted out of their little world for a while.
Re:Outsiders don't have to be assholes (Score:5, Interesting)
Exactly. The perfect outsider is the one who is socially acceptable, technically competent, but isn't scared to ask 'Why are we doing this?' When you have a group of people that think the same, always agree, and don't deviate from the norm, you won't grow. If you have one person that frequently asks why or enjoys being the devil's advocate, then you get get change. Without change, you can never grow from where you are.
Of course, some people are just asses. And those people need to be, uh, wiped off the books.
So to speak.
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He's the American version of Gareth Keenan.
(OK, I admit I had to look that up on imdb.)
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Now stop misunderestimating me!
- George W.
As compared to the current President who thinks that Austrians speak Austrian, and is totally lost without a teleprompter?
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This will of course get modded flamebait because american mods like to think they speak real english.
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Perfect example of nonsense...no linguist (I'm sure you're not familiar with terms like AAVE, AE, or SAE. That would be African-American Vernacular ENGLISH, American ENGLISH, and Southern American ENGLISH. You may notice the keywords ENGLISH) or anyone else who wasn't blatantly trying to defend Obama would agree with you.
Just think of the urban legend about Dan Quayle and Latin in Latin America. Many people still actually believe that one. Obama makes a stupid comment and the chattering classes go crazy com
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And that's saying a lot, since here in Europe we're used to accents being so different people from different regions of the same country can hardly understand each other. The fact your accents are so discrepant they need to be called something other than accents could well mean they've become a language in their own
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Er, my last post went through anonymously for some reason (lapsus calami). It was me :)
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Well, I think someone from Northern Germany will probably not understand someone really speaking Austrian (as opposed to speaking standard German with a mere Austrian accent).
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What's "real english?"
If England (the root word of English) started speaking only a modified Latin, would that language be "english?"
Or maybe, American's speak "real english" because there's more people who speak American English than there are who speak any other type of English?
Or maybe, instead of inane nitpicking about "real english" we can just recognize it for what it is, a regional accent.
Besides, I think British English is more corrupt than American English, innit?
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Since that english no longer exists we can safely assume its closest approximation is the english currently spoken by the people in southern regions of the main British Island. This is the English that spread to the rest of the world and was then simplified by American settlers due to them being largely non-native englis
Re:I totally disagree! (Score:5, Informative)
Or maybe, instead of inane nitpicking about "real english" we can just recognize it for what it is, a regional accent.
It's not a "regional accent", it's a dialect. An "accent" is how you pronounce words. A "dialect" is a different version of a language, such as Castillian Spanish, used in Spain, compared to Mexican Spanish, used in Mexico. Accents and dialects frequently go together, but not always. Southern Americans speak standard American English (with a little regional variation in words, but not enough to be called a separate dialect), but with a Southern accent.
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Besides, I think British English is more corrupt than American English, innit?
Eh, snooker or pool, it's all about the spin.
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Besides, I think British English is more corrupt than American English, innit?
Eh, snooker or pool, it's all about the spin.
Flamebait? Perhaps the joke was too subtle? Here's a definition list which should help with the many levels of humor (or humour) that was being attempted.
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Austrians speak Austrian as much as Australians speak Australian. Hope your head hurts now.
There's no such thing as Austrian, only Austrian German [wikipedia.org], with a language code of de-AT often used. Note the de, which denotes Deutsch (German).
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He may need a teleprompter, but at least when he has one he can talk without sounding like a complete idiot.
IMO, that's still a major improvement.
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He may need a teleprompter, but at least when he has one he can talk without sounding like a complete idiot.
You forgot about the "thank you" speech, and "liberty, [looooong pause] egalitie, fraternite" .
The guy might be the smartest man in the known universe, but the guy, a politician no less, so smooth that people swooned over him, can't even memorize the basic outline of a speech (because otherwise he would have noticed that he wasn't reading his own speech).
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I've always wondered: what exactly is the evidence that Obama is dependent on a teleprompter? Every president in recent memory has used one...
Also, the author of this [wikipedia.org] Wikipedia entry seems to think Austrians speak Austrian as well. (Though I don't dispute that it is just a variant of German). If this even is a gaffe, it certainly doesn't hold up in a comparison with Bush's gems.
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Thank you for putting things back in perspective.
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Yes, George W. Bush was much more intelligent, poised and talented than Barack Obama. That anyone could think otherwise just proves the grip of extreme, hard-core, Obama-style Communism on their soul. There is no other explanation. It's frightening, really.
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that anyone could think otherwise
Except that I never said that W was smarter than B.O.
GM, Chrysler, AIG (Score:3, Insightful)
Hockey Eh? (Score:2)
Having been an outsider many times (Score:4, Insightful)
I can tell you it's hell.
Until you quit and then you get that "I've been released from prison" feeling.
It's especially nice when 6 to 12 months later you hear that your boss got fired due to all the problems you tried to warn him about destroying the project and or his general incompetence.
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> Lesson Learned: It's more important to be nice than to get anything (useful) accomplished
Say what?? That's a slave's mentality.
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Woohoo! No shit! I thought I LOVED my last job. Got laid off (aka canned) basically for "not conforming." Was devastated, really didn't see it coming. Spent three months out of work, which was terrifying in this economy. Even though I'm usually pretty confident in my abilities, this time it really shook my confidence.
But... Got a job in January (Of all months!! It's tough to get a job in January in a GOOD economy!) with a very well known company, and although I dropped "in title", my actual work responsibil
aka Diversity (Score:1, Interesting)
Actually TFA is too narrow. The real key is avoiding a hegemony. From the Stanford Business School:
In fact, the worst kind of group for an organization that wants to be innovative and creative is one in which everyone is alike and gets along too well," she says. And the key to making nearly any kind of diversity work is managing it well.
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/hr_neale_groupdiversity.shtml
Michael Crichton's Andromeda Strain (Score:2)
You can't be an outsider... (Score:2)
...until you have read The Outsider [wikipedia.org].
My Boss (Score:2)
My Boss is the outsider. See, the rest of us are the misfits. It gets quite amusing when he suggests some new 'protocol' and we all leap in to denounce it. He gets this strange glazed-eye look. He works from home quite a bit.
This is why.. (Score:2)
the book Sway talks about this (Score:2)