First Friday Book Synopsis

Seth Godin

Seth Godin’s new book, Linchpin, is making waves.  He launched it with his own blogger assisted 2.0 media blitz (our own blogging team member Bob Morris was part of that – read this post, and this post), and he used the large megaphone of The Huffington Post with his own post, Is Control the Answer?, to provide a key concept of the book.  It has to do with control – and control is simply not going to work in a world focused on ideas.  Here’s part of what he wrote:

If you run a big factory, of course you need control. Control over when your workers come in, what they do, what they make, what happens to your inventory, where it’s sold, how it’s priced, everything. More control equals more profits, at least if the market is stable.

But if your business deals in ideas, control will stifle them.

Worse still, a rapidly changing competitive environment means that control is a losing strategy. Record companies tried to control technology and they lost. AT&T thought they could control how people used a telephone and they lost as well.

Is there any doubt that the world is going to go faster, not slower?

Now, power comes from connection and leadership and respect. The way you treat people (all of them, even those without apparent authority) comes back to you again and again, which means that our new leaders embrace dignity and respect instead of the traditional trappings of top down organizations.

Seth Godin has a great ability to take a key concept that is a perfect reflection of the era, and say – hey, pay attention to this.  He grasped that the way people were connecting was creating Tribes.  And now he grasps that that control is out, linchpins are in.  I think he is right…

Think about this (from Godin):

Are you betting on tomorrow being more or less interesting than yesterday?