Staff Book and Media Recommendations

Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking

Susan Cain

I first heard about Quiet: the Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking when I saw Susan Cain’s TED talk, “The power of introverts.” On reading the book, I was struck by her familiar description of how modern society expects everyone to be outgoing, that working in teams is the foundation for creative activity. Moreover, society tends to think poorly of people who prefer to work alone: they’re weird, maybe even dangerous. Certainly, these introverts don’t contribute as much as they could, if only they would open up and work with other people.

Cain points out that when the world continually tries to pull people out of their area of strength into an environment with more external stimulation, we lose out. While introverts can, and do make great contributions in team environments, their best stuff comes from the quiet times. That’s when they can contemplate a problem and really think through the possibilities. Cain doesn’t advocate returning to the era where we sat in straight rows and never shared anything, but that we need more balance. Everyone can benefit from working in a combination of teams and individual work that utilizes everyone’s strengths, and organizations benefit by having their people work from their strengths. ~ Jana Atkins

Reviewed November 2013