Bill Grant was a successful chain store owner and had made a fortune through his 25 cent stores across the US where he mainly specialized in selling kitchen supplies and household wares. In 1937 he approached Harvard University to help identify ways in which he could identify the best store managers and employees for his rapidly growing empire and promised the University a handsome sum for doing the study for this purpose.
The University decided to do the study by enrolling youngsters particularly those who were then studying in the university and stay in touch with them over a long period of time to understand how most of these people evolved and developed during their lives.
As the initial group of youngsters grew and started families and then had children etc. their families were also then included in the study. The participants in the study grew to more than 2000 people who were poked, prodded, interviewed, and physiologically analyzed during their entire lifetimes.
Today the study which was initially called the Grant study and now known as the Harvard study of adult development is one of largest, longest, and most famous studies in the world. The study tried to focus only on the findings of the data collected and avoided predicting at point in time as to who would do well and who wouldn’t so that this wouldn’t affect their judgment while conducting the study.
The study highlights this classic example of two extreme people who are widely quoted in this study by the names of Camille and Marsden. During the years when they were inducted into the study as young 20 odd year olds and in the initial decade they were dramatically different. Marsden was the smart, young, energetic, and successful person while Camille the nervous wreck who after getting into Harvard struggled spending long periods of time in hospitals for various physiological and other ailments. The initial movements in their lives and careers also reflected this same pattern with Marsden being extremely successful and Camille struggling.
The researchers at the University lost track of this study for a few decades due to lack of funds and other resources but by the time they reconnected with these people including Camille and Marsden almost a couple of decades had elapsed.
When they reconnected with Camille and Marsden, they found that life had evolved very differently from what was anticipated. Camille after his initial struggles had blossomed into a wonderful and successful human being who seemed to possess such diverse skills and energies which made him popular with a very diverse set of people. Marsden, who was very successful at the start of his career and as was captured in the last contact that the team had done with him had fallen off track in the ensuing twenty years and was today nowhere near his initial potential.
To understand what helped Camille make this change the team connected with him again and again to understand the same. Like most of us he also could not realize or differentiate what had made this change possible. But he figured out that the change started when he connected with someone while at hospital and this led to one thing and another which changed his entire life trajectory.
The team concluded that the real differentiator was the good friendships and the deep connections that Camille was able to develop after his changing experience with just one individual at the hospital.
We call these by different names, but it is these deep connections which enable these huge change in trajectories.
But how do these deep connections really develop? Deep connections can be different for different people and its influence on them can also be very different.
But the team found that the building block of these deep connections are the learning conversations that we have on a daily basis during different times of the day.
How do these learning conversations happen and how can we ensure that we can are able to convert our maximum conversations into learning ones?
1.. Paying attention to the conversation that is happening.
Our minds will tend to wander but we will need to consciously get back into the conversation that is happening and try to stay focused on them.
2.. Share your goals and ask what others are seeking.
Am not sure how much we can do this is in our own highly competitive work environments where everyone is trying to pull a fast on each other. Am sure we all have common goals that we share which can be shared and discussed about. Also, if we are in a common discussion then openly sharing things will help provide the best output for all those participating in the discussion.
3.. Ask about others feelings and share your own..
In a situation where we are conditioned to hide our real feelings this would perhaps be the most difficult thing to do. But like I had written in one of my earlier articles our subconscious mind is far more superior than our conscious mind and the other person’s mind understands your real feelings and intentions and responds back to us based on our sub conscious thoughts and intentions.
Also remember watching the movie called Central Intelligence which is based on a similar story where the best outgoing student in school is struggling with life after almost two decades. He then meets with the most overweight and most taunted student from his class in school who has now transformed himself into a totally different person. We also see several such situations when we meet friends for get together after several decades.
As we navigate our professional and personal lives, the wisdom gleaned from Bill Grant’s groundbreaking study on long-term success illuminates a path less travelled. Grant’s research reveals that true success evolves from the richness of our human connections and the conversations that nurture them. It is in the depth of these learning conversations—where vulnerability meets insight, and curiosity sparks growth—that we uncover the paths of enduring achievement. Deep connections, cultivated through empathy and genuine engagement, form the bedrock upon which our greatest successes are built. To continue learning more about the intertwining of these elements—our learning, our connections and our shared journeys .. do subscribe to my LinkedIn page, Rejo’s Business Bytes, or my website, rejofrancis.com
