The biggest story in the business world has been hiding in plain sight until now: the company has been upgraded, but not for the reasons you think. In this groundbreaking book, MIT scientist and NYT bestselling author Andrew McAfee explains why “The Geek Way” works so much better than what came before.
In looking into what makes today's most innovative companies distinct, McAfee saw a hidden revolution, focused on culture. To capture its unconventional and radical nature, he took an old term and made it new: Geek. The business geeks have arrived, and they do things very differently. This book shows why they're just getting started and will change the future.
Some of these geeks are well-known: Satya Nadella, Reid Hoffman, Reed Hastings. Others less so, but they're transforming industries ranging from space exploration to finance to online marketing. Their approach to building and maintaining thriving organizations revolves around four habits: science, ownership, speed, and openness.
When all four are in place they yield organizations that are more freewheeling, fast-moving, egalitarian, evidence-driven, argumentative, and autonomous than the stalwarts of the Industrial Era. They're also better performers. They excel simultaneously at innovation, execution, and agility, and are some of the most sought-after places to work in the world.
Why does the geek way work so much better? McAfee provides a totally original answer: because it taps into humanity's superpower, which is our ability to cooperate intensely and learn rapidly. By providing insights from the young discipline of cultural evolution, McAfee shows that when we come together under the right conditions, we quickly figure out how to build reusable spaceships and quantum computers. Under the wrong conditions, though, all we create are bureaucracy, chronic delays, cultures of silence, and other classic dysfunctions of the Industrial Era.
Today's business geeks are farthest along in figuring out how to create conditions that harness our superpower. This book will help you figure out how to go even farther.
“The Geek Way” is a business book like no other: a paradigm-shifting framework that will forever change how you think about success, and show how anyone can adopt the scientifically-backed geek habits that produce extraordinary results.
