Technology shows up and changes the culture. The culture then enables new industries and movements, which further change the culture. And then technology shows up and puts an end to the system we were all used to.
The parentheses open, and then, perhaps, they close.
The pop-rock parentheses opened with the transistor radio (kids could listen to music without their parents) and closed with streaming (no scarcity meant long tail meant no mass market).
The publishing parentheses opened with Gutenberg and ended with the death of the bookstore. Digital books mean no scarce shelf space, no scarce paper, no power to the publisher, no mass market.
A door opens, and then, one day, it closes.
It’s easy to mourn the end of these eras, but in my lifetime, so many parentheses have opened…
Computers connect us–to resources, to truth and to each other (which can mean folk-truth instead of actual truth)
Medicine is truly a science, not a series of half-understood superstitions
Musicians and writers can find an audience without a gatekeeper
We’ve changed the narrative about fairness (even though we’ve just begun to make progress)
It has never been easier to spread an idea or start an enterprise
Access to information, just about all of it, is cheap and fast
If you care enough to learn something, you can
It’s possible to day trade tragedy and doom, and if it was the best way to make things better, I’d be in favor of it. But with all the doors that have opened, what a chance to make things better. To make something, and to make things better.
HT Kevin Kelly, Chris Anderson, Bernadette Jiwa, Jeff Jarvis, Rohan Rajiv, Paul McGowan, Dan Pink, Roz Zander, David Deutsch and so many others. More on systems thinking in this week’s podcast.
Go start a project.
July 10, 2019
Conventional CEO wisdom is that top management is worth a fortune because of the high-leverage decisions they make.
But consider the work of Wade, an unheralded Air Canada gate agent. Yesterday, I watched him earn his employer at least $50,000 while getting paid perhaps .1% of that.
The microphone was out of order, but instead of screaming at the passengers, he walked over and spoke directly to the people who needed to hear him.
On his own, he started inquiring about the connection status of a family of four. He could have cleared the standby list, closed the flight and told the four that they’d have to find another way home. Or, he could have saved them their four seats, which would have flown empty if they hadn’t been filled. Instead of either path, he picked up the phone, organized other staff to find and expedite the family and get them on board.
And then, in an unrelated bit of valor, he tracked down a lost wallet and sent his #2 to fetch it from where it had been left–getting it to the plane before it left.
Most of all, in an era when loyalty is scarce, he probably increased the lifetime value of a dozen wavering customers by at least a few thousand dollars each.
Krulak’s Law states that the future of an organization is in the hands of the privates in the field, not the generals back home.
Unfortunately, management and a lack of trust get in the way of the work environment you’ll need to build to earn the human, dedicated work of the next Wade. Hopefully, the airline will put him in charge of their horrible website next. But I’m not optimistic.
Where is your Wade? What are you doing to make it more likely that he or she will bring magic to work tomorrow?
July 9, 2019
Really?
More data is usually available. It takes time or money, but you can get more data.
But you’re probably not using all the data you’ve already got.
I’m guessing what you meant was, “I wish I had more certainty.”
And that, unfortunately, isn’t available.
If it’s worth the work you put into it and the change you seek to make, it’s worth dancing with the uncertainty. Reassurance isn’t going to come from more data–that’s a stall.
Forward motion is the best way to make things better.
July 8, 2019
The only choice is to launch before you’re ready.
Before it’s perfect.
Before it’s 100% proven to be no risk to you.
At that moment, your resistance says, “don’t ship it, it’s crappy stuff. We don’t ship crap.”
And it’s true that you shouldn’t ship work that’s hurried, sloppy or ungenerous.
But what’s actually on offer is something scrappy.
Scrappy means that while it’s unpolished, it’s better than good enough.
Scrappy doesn’t care about cosmetics as much as it cares about impact.
Scrappy is flexible and resilient and ready to learn.
Ship scrappy.
[HT to Joshua].
July 7, 2019
The easiest way to get someone’s attention is to compare them to someone else.
When people compete on the same metrics (how many followers, how much income, how many points scored) the focus gets very tight. With a simple metric, there’s no confusion at all about how to earn more status.
The irony is that the simpler the metric, the less useful the effort is.
Big ideas, generous work, important breakthroughs–to pursue these goals is to abandon the metric of the moment in favor of a more useful sort of contribution.
If we want smart kids, the GPA is a lousy way to get them.
July 6, 2019
That’s the two-part secret of smart eating–you don’t have to eat everything on your plate, and if you’ve got trouble with that, put less on the plate to begin with.
But the same rules apply in our daily lives. If a meeting is scheduled for an hour, you’re allowed to leave after ten minutes if you’re done.
The hard part isn’t ‘portion’, it’s ‘control’. Self-control is underrated.
The digital economy has created an endless buffet, and it’s easy to overeat. When confronted with infinity, is it okay to blink?
Portions are up to us.
July 5, 2019
Independence sometimes seems easier than the long-term, disciplined, generous work of connection.
But it’s connection that enables us to add value.
The math is simple: when people with different assets, needs and views come together, they’re able to produce more than they ever could on their own. Trading goods, skills and knowledge without friction creates a leap in productivity.
It might be easier to burn a bridge than it is to build one, but in the long run, bridges are what we need.
July 4, 2019
Some projects suffer from a lack of awareness. If only more people knew about what you were offering, you’d be fine.
But most projects don’t have that problem, not really.
The problem is that the people who are already aware of it don’t take action.
They don’t sign up.
They don’t engage.
They don’t spread the word.
More focus on action and less on awareness usually pays dividends. It’s more difficult of course, because you need to focus on what you make, how you make it and the change you seek to create.
July 3, 2019
The first week of business school was pretty miserable for me. I had no idea if the others were feeling as underwater as I was, because I was focused on my own challenges.
And then, a few days into the semester, Chip Conley, a fellow student, put a note in my campus mailbox. To paraphrase, “I’m organizing a five-person brainstorming group, and I’m hoping you can join us.”
Chip wasn’t in charge of anything. Like me, he was one of the youngest students in the class. But he realized that the best way forward was together, so he reached out and changed the lives of four fellow travelers. By assembling a few others, he created magic, possibility and connection.
What can you organize today?
July 2, 2019
It’s possible to build a car that will never injure the driver, regardless of the severity of the crash.
The thing is, it will be so heavy, it won’t move, and so wide, it won’t fit on the roads.
We compromise every time we engage with the rules of physics.
And it’s possible that the world will line up and give you exactly what you want. Except that other humans never want exactly what you want, and we build that truth into our expectations about what’s possible. We compromise every time we engage with other human beings.
Once we acknowledge that all forward motion involves compromise, we can get to the actual question, “how much?”
How much will we compromise with the realities of physics and humanity on our path to making things better?
Absolutism is a form of hiding. Perfect is the enemy of good.
July 1, 2019
