"Shepard Fairey didn't seek to monetize the Obama Hope poster. He gave it away with a single-minded obsession". Seth Godin, Linchpin, January 2010
I have been a keen follower of Seth Godin's blog for some time [see the Management Sushi blogroll!] - and went to see him speak in London when he was last here in February 2009. Since then, I have had the privilege of being part of his Triiibes international network and continued to absorb the invaluable [and always searingly insightful] life & work commentaries on Seth's daily blog.
Here's the Management Sushi viewpoint on Seth Godin's latest book, ‘Linchpin: Are you Indispensable?' which comes out this week on Tuesday January 26th.
THE MARKETING OF LINCHPIN - AN INGENIOUS APPROACH!
Part of Godin's genius in the marketing of the book has been the offer of a pre-release review copy to all wannabe citizen reviewers - the book itself [if you live in the US] and a 60 page PDF excerpt for the rest of the international community, including me - in return for a small donation to his preferred charity the Acumen Fund. This is what Seth had to say when he launched his book review experiment last December :
"There used to be one hundred people who mattered.
That's true in a lot of industries, but particularly in books.
One hundred people who could make a book a hit. These were key buyers at bookstores, reviewers and editors at newspapers, the person who booked time at Oprah or the Today Show.
So publishers courted these people. If the one hundred loved it, the book launched as a hit. Of course the 100 all get free copies. Lots of free copies.
Today, of course, those one hundred people matter a lot less. And who matters more? You.
You, because you have a network. You blog. You tweet. You talk things up at meetings or recommend things to friends.
And there are a lot more than a hundred of you.
One solution is to give everyone a free copy. Publishers and authors could do this and try to make money doing something else. Another solution is to let the best of this group, the most committed, the most interested... let them stand up and identify themselves."
And here's what he had to say on the success of the experiment just over a week ago:
"Last month, I offered readers who wanted to review my new book a chance to get an early copy. It was a pretty big risk, because it meant ignoring the tried and true process of talking to big media and tailoring a message for critics and reviewers. What happens when you go to your best customers with a product that's untested?
Five weeks later and I couldn't be more pleased or more grateful. We sent out thousands of books and so far, the book has been well received".
You can read some of the other Linchpin book reviews here.
WHAT'S THE THRUST OF THE BOOK?
Linchpin looks set to be one of Godin's finest books as well his most personal with a clear urgency of tone. As he says. "This is a personal manifesto, a plea from me to you". The book is less about the externalities of business and much more about effective life choice for the future at a pivotal point in our history.
"This book is different. It's about choice and it's about your life. This choice doesn't require you to quit your job, though it challenges you to rethink how you do your job".
Godin wants us to wake up to the way the world is changing in our post-industrial age and change accordingly. As he says here in a recent interview about the book with Piers Fawkes of trends research and innovation consultancy PSFK.
"I guess my argument is if the system is broken and dying, why even try to preserve your sinecure in the system. Protecting your position of mediocre obedience is exhausting because every day seems like the last day ... and what I am pushing you to do as an individual is to stand up and be the Linchpin - the one they can't live without. The one who is so connected, who makes such a difference, who changes so many things that you're the last guy they are going to get rid of".
And Seth is not the only one to predict the death of the current system and point to new futures and the clear imperative to gear up for change, Linchpin attitudes and entrepreneurial mindsets. Recently, both Thomas Power, business visionary and co-founder with his wife Penny Power of business network Ecademy and Imran Hakim, CEO of the Hakim Group, made similar statements: ....
"Networks are the new corporations. Corporates as we know them today will not exist. Their cost base is way too high, and their overhead of buildings, pensions, health care, PAYE and NI will become unaffordable. Every employee will become a supplier. There won't be employees by 2030. Jobs will be a forgotten concept".
Thomas Power, Founder, Ecademy
"The first real real recession of the digital age has truly reformed opinion with the masses now waking up to the realisation that entrepreneurship gives rise to innovation, employment, tax revenues, and ultimately, wealth - and that anybody can participate. You simply need the desire, commitment and state of mind to make great things happen".
Imran Hakim, CEO, Hakim Group
SO WHAT EXACTLY IS AN INDISPENSABLE LINCHPIN?
Linchpins, in Godin's view, are the "essential building blocks of tomorrow's high-value organisations". They are those who get why mediocre obedience in a broken and changing system makes no sense whatsoever; who get that leaders don't get a map or set of rules and and that living life without a map requires a Linchpin attitude and changed posture to life; and who get that "average is over" and that blindly following instructions within the system and merely contributing labour makes no sense at all and will do them no favours.
Linchpins, Godin tells us, recognise the following in a world of broken systems and a flat job market, where companies increasingly can no longer to afford to take care of their employees in exchange for "mediocre obedience".
"It's futile to work hard at restoring the take-care-of-you bargain. The bargain is gone, and it's not worth whining about and it's not effective to complain. There's a new bargain now, one that leverages talent and creativity and art more than it rewards obedience".
As Godin tells Hugh MacLeod in his recent GapingVoid interview with Seth about Linchpin:
"The linchpin is the person who is indispensable, because they refuse to become an interchangeable part, someone who merely follows the manual. In the hardware store, the linchpin is a lightweight little piece that holds the wheel to the axle. Very difficult to live without".
AND WHAT'S A LIZARD BRAIN GOT TO DO WITH ANYTHING, LET ALONE EMOTIONAL LABOUR?!
"The lizard brain is hungry, scared, angry and horny. The lizard brain only wants to eat and be safe".
"The lizard brain is the reason you're afraid, the reason you don't do all the art you can, the reason you don't ship when you can. The lizard brain is the source of the resistance".
Godin effectively uses the colourful concept of the lizard brain to show us how we can hold ourselves back and ‘resist' from becoming a Linchpin [in a recent conference, he used a plastic chicken to bring home the message. Check out the picture! Also, check out this video where Seth explains further about the lizard brain!]
If we listen too much to our change and risk-averse inner self, we will never dig ourselves out of the, wrongly assumed, seductive comfort of our safe little ruts of mediocre obedience in life. We will never reach linchpin status, where we need to be, for personal survival and fulfilment purposes. We will hold onto the safety of our well-dug personal ruts, and only be turfed out of them when it is too late and change is upon us. Listening to the lizard brain puts us on the back foot and in a risky position. Taking the risk, and changing our posture, to become one of Godin's Linchpins, puts us, whether we know it or not, on the front foot.
In terms of changing our posture and throwing off our outdated attitudes, Godin tells us getting out of the accustomed comfort of our various ruts may not be as difficult as we think.
"You might not be as permanently stuck in a rut as you think. The rut you're in isn't as permanent, nor is it perfect. There are certainly less perfect ruts, and there may be better ones as well. The certain thing is that you can change everything. If you choose to."
So what's the trick to getting out of our rut and changing our posture and attitudes to a winning Linchpin mentality? Hard work and emotional labour is the answer Godin gives us. We learn from the book that :
"Emotional labor is the hard work of making art, producing generosity, and exposing creativity. Working without a map involves both vision and the willingness to do something about what you see".
"Emotional labor is what you get paid to do, and one of the most difficult types of emotional labor is staring into the abyss of choice and picking a path".
Seth further expands on this concept in his conversation with Hugh MacLeod :
"It's emotional labor to do the work even when you don't feel like it. Mostly, I'm talking about doing the difficult work of bringing your very best self to each interaction, because do otherwise is a mortal sin".
Critically, as Seth says, in today's economic climate alongside the seismic shifts taking place in our work places, "showing up unwilling to do emotional labor is a short-term strategy now, because over time, organisations won't pay extra for someone who merely does the easy stuff".
The bottom line message coming from Godin with regard to emotional labour is that - to survive in the new era we face - we all need to put 150% into what we deliver work-wise and quite often in risky scenarios where we have no map but rely on our own inner voice and ability to draw our own maps not read anyone else's.
As Godin says, :
"It turns out that digging into the difficult work of emotional labor is exactly what we're expected (and needed) to do. Work is nothing but a platform for art and the emotional labor that goes with it".
THE BOTTOM LINE? SHIPPING OUR ART!
We are all artists in Godin's Linchpin world. In his usage of the term, he means the following:
"Artist means someone willing to stand up, stand out and make change ...... In a changing environment, you want people who can steer, innovate, provoke, lead, connect and make things happen. That's my thesis. This is a new revolution, and just as Marx and Smith wrote about the industrial revolution, I'm writing about ours".
By ignoring the lizard brain, forging our own path in unmapped territory and doing the emotional labour, we can and should produce great art. Great art underpinned by effort, flair and risk will always resonate. And will always produce positive but unpredictable results. It will resonate within your work place, or within the entrepreneurial furrows you have chosen to plough.
Godin defines Art as follows:
"Art isn't only a painting. Art is anything that's creative, passionate, and personal. And great art resonates with the viewer, not only with the creator".
"Art cannot be merely commerce. It must also be a gift. The artist creates his idea knowing that it will spread freely, without recompense".
... and defines the Linchpin Artist here ....
"An artist is someone who uses bravery, insight, creativity and boldness to challenge the status quo. And an artist takes it personally".
And what do we do with our Art? We must ship it. Get it out of the door and into the hands of others who can most usefully use it. We need to get into a Shipping mentality. In other words, we need to get the fact that we need to create - and then deliver. Delivering and shipping is key. As is getting past the strong resistance of our own lizard brains tempting us by saying "it doesn't really matter", "who's going to be bothered", and "don't strain yourself, take some some time out" - and the like!
As part of the 'shipping' exercise of this blog, I decided to do a bit of shipping myself! Beyond the blog, I picked out some key phrases from the book that had resonance for me and asked illustrator and designer Adrian Elgie to help me bring them to life in his own creative way! I hope you like his illustrations! They are a Linchpin 'gift'!
Here's a final word from Godin on Shipping :
"Am I some sort of prodigy? I don't think so. I ship. I don't get in the way of the muse. I fight the resistance, and I ship. I do this by not doing an enormous amount of tasks that are perfect stalling devices, ideal ways of introducing the resistance into our lives".
IN CONCLUSION ....
"In the linchpin economy, the winners are once again the artists who give gifts".
My personal view is that this is Seth Godin's best book so far and one that has seized him most personally. It is also a book that is far-sighted and very of the moment. It doesn't give us a clear map, but then the whole sentiment of the book is that only by doing the hard work and emotional labour ourselves will we ever forge a meaningful path and route map of our own. It does, however, give us plenty of clear hints at what is to come and what the new revolution has in store for us, and how we could and should become winners.
I would definitely check out Linchpin, and will most definitely be buying it myself [the 60 page pdf version is not enough!]. It's punchy, driven, visionary and urgent, just like the book cover itself. It's an invaluable gift of art that Godin has shipped out to us after some not inconsiderable emotional labour of his own!
Here is a final call to action from Seth Godin to conclude this review! ....
"Becoming a linchpin is in fact the most financially responsible choice you can make. But that's your call, and if you decide you don't want, fine with me".
"You can do it. You can embrace a new path and take it. Don't settle. You're a genius and we need your contribution. Do the work. Please."
The bottom line is that Seth Godin is pretty indispensable himself. As is Linchpin!
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Linchpin illustrations produced for Management Sushi by artist and creative director Adrian Elgie. Check out his work here.
Get your copy of Linchpin here.
Check out other Linchpin Reviews here.
Find out more about the Acumen Fund here.
