You’re signing up for a class. One section is taught by a very senior professor, someone who’s done research and really knows the field. Another section is taught by a part-time teacher. Which do you prefer?
You’re choosing a new doctor. Is it important to know where he went to med school?
Or you’ve got a new business and you’re looking for guidance. Would you sign up for a program with an experienced pro or would you choose someone fairly new and largely unknown?
Believe it or not, the less senior person may be a better choice. There’s evidence from two books I just read and from my framework.
Adam Grant’s book, Hidden Potential, reports a natural university experiment. It’s the scenario presented above. Researchers compared students’ performance in a subsequent class. Some students had taken their intro course from an expert – a tenured research professor. Others had studied with a newer, much less credentialed teacher. The second group out-performed the first.
Grant wasn’t surprised. “Those who can do, can’t teach” is his re-phrase of a popular saying. He points out that we learn by teaching. He also says some people know their subject too well to teach newbies. Einstein, he says, was a lousy teacher.
Another book, Random Acts of Medicine, is by two doctors studying systems: Anupam Jena and Christopher Worsham. They didn’t find differences in quality between graduates of different medical schools. Nor did they find patients dying in droves when they had to rely on residents, as when the top docs went to conferences out of town.
Finally, I have a framework of five story archetypes. Many people tell me they’ll pay a lot of money to study with Celebrities. One woman told me she spent $1500 for a weekend with a well-known guru. He took a quick look at her sales letter; otherwise she had no personal contact. I’m not well known and I’m an Educator archetype. I’d have given her detailed feedback for $200.