Mavericks at work
By CareerBuilder blogger on Oct 14, 2008 in Careers, Job Descriptions
We’ve heard the word “maverick” a lot this year, haven’t we?
That word reminded me of the book “Mavericks at Work” by William C. Taylor and Polly LaBarre.
We all have a pretty good idea in general of what qualities a maverick has, but what does a maverick in the workplace look like?
One great example in the book was the team at Craigslist. They’ve taken a very unconventional approach to everything.
- Most contemporary websites are a graphic designer’s playground, but Craigslist is a series of links in a table with minimal formatting.
- They actually delegate some important tasks to the users themselves. Specifically, Craigslist lets their community of users decide what content works and what’s inappropriate. Users can “flag” material, and if a certain threshold is met, the content is removed from the site.
- It’s about 99% free. (Only employers posting jobs and real estate transactions are paid ads, and only in a select few cities.)
It’s pretty safe to say that Craigslist is a maverick in the workplace, and certainly in the marketplace, where it completely changed the game for classified advertising.
Have YOU been a maverick in the workplace? Or were you part of a team, a project or a company that took a second look at the way things were done – and went after a new approach?
Cristy S. | Oct 18, 2008 | Reply
Good example in Craigslist! Thanks for this; it is certainly making me think!
I’d love to see more of your thoughts on what defines a maverick …
-Cristy S.
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