West Bloomfield Grad Finds Success with New Workplace Ideas

Adam Grant believes the key to success in the workplace has more to do with giving than with taking. 

Late last month, New York Times magazine profiled the 31-year-old West Bloomfield High graduate, who recently published his research on workplace interactions in the book Give and Take. 

The youngest tenured professor at Wharton School of Business, Grant was captain of the West Bloomfield swimming and diving team in his senior year. According to the book's website, he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University and earned his Ph.D. in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan. 

In "Is Giving the Secret to Getting Ahead?", New York Times reporter Susan Dominus outlines Grant's research, which focuses on the resulting boon to motivation when people feel they are working to help others. His research has ranged from showing University of Michigan call center employees the students helped by their fund-raising efforts, to measuring the amount of soap used by health care professionals based on a slight wording difference on the soap dispensers.

Grant discovered that people experienced greater success when they felt they were doing something for others. His ideas shape a view of the workplace that has caught the attention of employers at Google, the NFL, Merck, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, IBM and the U.S. military.

• Read the full New York Times article.
• Hear Grant speak later this month at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.
• Visit the book website or find Give and Take at the West Bloomfield Township Public Library.