Grant is an organisational psychologist at Wharton who writes for a general audience. His usefulness is that he brings evidence to questions — about generosity, originality, rethinking, motivation — where business writing normally offers a story and a confident assertion.
He is also unusually willing to publish findings that contradict his own earlier positions, which is rare in a field that rewards certainty.
His work on reciprocity found that the most successful people are often givers — and so are the least successful. The difference is whether the giving is strategic and bounded or indiscriminate. Useful for anyone who says yes to everything.
The argument that the skill in short supply is not intelligence but the willingness to update. In business the version is holding your strategy as a hypothesis rather than an identity — much easier to say than to do.
His research on original thinkers found them less reckless than the mythology suggests — hedging, keeping the day job, testing. It is a useful corrective to the leap-and-the-net-will-appear school.
These links go to their own work. We summarise and point — we do not republish it.
Managers and owners who want research rather than opinion on how people actually behave at work.
Academic findings need translating to a five-person business, and he does not do that translating for you.
