>>Adam Grant: I wanted to compare the success
of givers, takers, and matchers.
Who are the most productive?
Who are the least productive?
So I got data across different kinds of jobs
and different measures of success: Tracking
the productivity of engineers as a function
of how many favors they do for their colleagues
versus how many they receive in return.
Looking at the grades of medical students
based on how much they liking others.
And then also tracking sales people.
How much revenue do they accrue each year
depending on the amount of time they invest
in their colleagues and their customers?
Now, a lot of people think that the takers
finish last.
And if that's you, I want to congratulate
you on being a raging optimist.
They don't.
The data show consistently that the givers
finish last in each of these jobs.
The worst engineers who get the least work
done and make the most errors are the ones
who do more favors than they get back.
They are so busy helping their colleagues
do their work they run out of time and energy
to get their own stuff done.
In medicine -- This is going to sound like
a joke but it's not.
The lowest grades in medical school belong
to the students who agree most strongly with
statements like "I love helping others."
[ Laughter ]
Which suggests the doctor you ought to trust
is the one who came to medical school with
no desire to help anybody.
And then in sales, the lowest revenue belongs
to the people who spend the most time trying
to help both their colleagues and their clients.
I used to work in sales, and I found this
a little bit puzzling.
So I went to our data.
I found the person with the highest giver
score in this company and the lowest revenue.
And I asked him: How do you explain this?
Why do you suck at your job?
I didn't ask it that way.
[ Laughter ]
But what is the cost of being a giver in sales?
And he paused and he said, "Can I be honest
with you?"
I said, "No, as a researcher, I want you to
lie to me.
Yes, please be honest."
He said, "Well, if I can 100% candid, I care
so deeply about my customers that I would
never sell them one of our crappy products."
[ Laughter ]
I'm now rethinking honesty as a research policy.
