The average trap

Simplify, standardize, streamline – this is what everyone aims for, politics, education, companies. Does our strength really lie in this mass standardization we are chasing, or are we on the wrong side of the road?

I have recently read  a book called ‘The average trap’ and some interviews with the Professor who wrote it, the Head of the Institute of Medical Genetics in Vienna, Prof. Markus Hengstschläger.

One of the main questions in his book is: Why is averageness a trap and not the objective? The answer to this question is given via a simple example: ‘Imagine 20 children in a gym hall. The teacher asks them to position themselves in such a way that they can catch a ball that could come from anywhere and at any time. Politicians seeking to help the children would most probably assign a commission of experts to deal with this question. If in the past the ball had come 10  times from bottom left and 10 times from top right, the mean value would suggest that it should come from the middle. But it has, in actual fact, never come from the middle as yet. The expert commission unfortunately then advises that the children position themselves at one central point in the gym hall. In reality, however, the children stand the greatest chance of catching the airborne ball if every child takes up a different position.’ The children even have a better chance of catching this ball if they run around the gym, instead of standing still, meaning that we all have greater chances of catching a ball through individuality combined with flexibility.

Still, fact is that instead of driving our individuality, we all stand in the middle of our gym hall and keep wondering why we never catch a ball. We all have different strengths and capabilities, some genetically determined, others developed throughout our lives. We all get a pen and a paper, but have to write the story ourselves.

Sounds really nice, but we keep standing together in the middle, thinking it is better for our career, for our personal life, it is easier to find a partner, easier to have kids and then encourage them to also stand in the middle with us.

Education should give us the possibility to practice, to discover and let us create instead of memorize. The next logical question arises: are all creations worth the same? Which talent is better? Which talents should be promoted for the benefit of society? The author of the book simply states: ‘We cannot know today which talents will be needed tomorrow’. The statement is true, but the conclusion would be that we should equally support all talents – in my opinion, it is almost impossible to achieve this, as we would need a tailor-made educational system, not to talk about the financial implications. Europe is governed by a trend of standardization and integration, which just adds up to the already existing class of averageness. We do have human capital and we should make this our strength.

Just think about the company you are working in or any company at all: Most companies have evaluations and checklists to identify the ones who are performing under average and develop programs to enhance their performance a.k.a. make them average. 

How many companies invest the same amount of work into discovering who is performing over-average? How many companies have programs to motivate their employees to innovate and be different than the rest? This is actually a very important task of the management, often neglected – managers have to discover talents and support them. They must be able to create an environment in which existing talents are not wasted just because they have to perform the same routine every day. A good idea can only be born in the right environment, otherwise you will be stuck in the same routines for decades, some even for a lifetime. And this is also reflected in the numbers – who do you think will bring more money into a company? The under-average employee who is now dutifully performing his mediocre tasks, or the innovator, who discovers a new business opportunity, shortens workaround times, improves processes or increases customer satisfaction?

All the HR trainings teach you that human capital is the most important in any company, which is absolutely false. The most important is if you know how to place your human capital. If you, as a company or as a manager, fail to place your resources somewhere they can be productive, you have already lost. If you strive to keep them all together in the middle, you will probably grow old and they will never have caught a single ball. And which company or manager wants to be the coach of a losing team? In theory – none. But practice shows that many companies and managers actually still are coaching losing teams.

So, if you are in a position of promoting someone, your child, your team member, your colleague – do it! Push them out of the middle and let them explore the edges. We have all been innovation followers for too long, it is not too late to be the innovation leaders.

The article is based on the book 'The Average Trap' by Markus Hengstschläger and the interview from 'Succeed' Magazine, issue 01/2013.