Nov 17, 2014 By Sue Warnke

4 Steps to Tap Into Your Team's Rookie Smarts

I’ve had the ride of my life working at Salesforce. Six years ago, I started as a technical writer and now lead engineering and documentation teams. But one of my career highlights was working with best-selling author of Multipliers, Liz Wiseman, on a single experiment that transformed how my teams work. This experiment is captured in Liz’s new book Rookie Smarts.

For years, my documentation team had struggled with our complex authoring tools. I sympathized, but as a manager, I no longer had firsthand experience with the tools. At the same time, a top writer on my team, Jean-Paul Connock, had expressed interest in becoming a manager, but he had no firsthand management experience.

Liz encouraged us to “borrow” each other’s jobs for a day. I spent a day wrestling with our writing tools and Jean-Paul spent a day attending management meetings. I experienced the tool's inefficiencies, and Jean-Paul experienced upper-level planning sessions. This experience challenged what we thought we knew about each other’s roles; it gave us “new eyes” that helped us quickly identify solutions.

My “new eyes” helped me pitch for a new documentation tool that has since contributed to a 30% increase in writer productivity and team morale. Jean-Paul’s “new eyes” gave him the confidence to attain a management position. He now leads the very engineers who implemented our newly funded writing tool.

This single day of job switching jolted us out of our routines. It triggered deep learning for both of us and helped us solve real business problems. I now encourage other Salesforce technologists to step out of their comfort zone – for a day, a few hours, even a single meeting. Your “rookie” perspective is priceless. It might help you solve long-standing issues for your team; it might lead you toward your dream job.

“I’m tremendously grateful for the opportunity to go ‘backstage’ and experience a day in the life of a manager. Not only did the opportunity cement my decision to move into management, but it provided valuable insight into managerial decisions that guided my decisions as a writer.”

– Jean-Paul Connock, Content Engineering Manager, Salesforce

To jump-start your own learning, consider swapping a job with someone you work with by following these steps:

Pick the role you want to “try on.”
Ask someone in that role if you can fill in for them in an upcoming meeting. Let them know this is not only a learning opportunity for you, but it also builds their brand as a transparent, agile leader who supports the development of others.
If they might benefit from borrowing your role, propose a swap, and provide the necessary information to get them started.
Share the benefits of this experiment with your organization and encourage others to try it for themselves.

So what do you think? Have you ever had the opportunity to swap roles with a coworker? Let us know in the comments!