In continuation of the review of the book titled Rookie Smarts by Liz Wiseman, we look at a few more instances where constant learning is more valuable than mastery and how to apply this principle. 

The author invites us to take a look at what it takes to rouse us from the comforts of the convention. She says one such thing is the newer challenge level that  we should overcome by working up the learning curve. In some places, where we start working our intellectual muscles again, we feel the most engaged. 

She says don’t hesitate to place yourself on new terrains but pace yourself.  

Shift from leader to learner. She says in this case you have to overcome the confirmation bias to capture the tendency of the people to favor information that support their hypotheses. There is also the convenience factor playing in this as we move from  where we are to where we want to be. 

We should step into the discomfort zone. Its only outside the comfort zone where we encounter “expectation failure” – when things don’t go as we want. 

But we pace ourselves by taking small steps – when the gap is too big, we break. Perpetual rookies must continuously guard against routines. 

The rookie smarts not only apply at a personal level but also at an organizational level. Rookies are most capable than most people imagine. But they need managers who can place them in an environment conducive to learning and insight. There are three ways how this can be done: 

1. Freedom with direction: as a manager, provide clear directions, guardrails and criteria for completeness of solution. But direct them to experts. Activate the Hunter-gatherer mode. 

2. A constructive challenge: Offer stretch goals, but don’t overwhelm the rookies. Provide challenges with feedback. Just as the challenges should be small, the best feedback comes in small doses and quick bursts. 

3. A tightrope with safety net: The author says that when we operate at a level that demands more than the current skill, we walk a tight rope. As mangers make it safe for the rookie, they lower the rope and raise the safety net. 

Similar to how we build an organization with rookie smarts, we can also build powerful teams. Rookies are capable of doing amazing work themselves and they can be tapped into four configurations that have the potential to produce stellar results. 

4. The ground and the spark : A veteran – rookie pair where the veteran brings the a ground to reality and the rookie brings energy and determination. 

5. The talent scout and the new talent -  The rookie brings the novel ideas and a new approach and the veterans champion the rookies promise 

6. The advisor and the entrepreneur – The rookie brings a new idea and the veteran brings contacts and network 

7. A hetero genius team – people with different backgrounds and experience level may find it difficult to work together but it produces better outcomes where creative thinking is needed. 

The author concludes with a note on talent management. She says, when hiring, hire for traits shared by perpetual rookie. When designing a job and planning a succession, rotate talent to keep it fresh. When making development investments,  target people in rookie assignments. Finally, she reminds us that rookie smarts is not about age or experience level but a state of mind that is willing to unlearn and relearn. It is also a choice that will enable your success in the new world of changes. 
#codingexercise
Given an array of positive integers, you have to insert one of +,-*/ between two number such that the result is maximum
Since the operations are symmetric, we can sort the numbers.
For all ones we can do a sum pairwise and then multiply.
For numbers that are not ones, we can multiply them directly.