How to Become Purple You!

How to Become Purple You!

Derived from…
Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable
Previously
Redesigning Work and Organizations for the Digital Age (4)

Actions : Be Purple You!
PROFIT : Enough talk. Unless your genius is saying the right thing that makes the difference. It’s time for action. It’s time to take the steps to create Purple You. Here’s four simple questions to ask to get you started...

1 Choose
Do I want a career as a Cog or an Artist?
(Read: RAP 2 + 3)

2 Define
What’s my gift? My art? My talent? My special ability?
(Read: RAPs 4 + 5)

3 Overcome
What will I need to do to overcome any resistance within myself and from others?
(Read: RAP 8)

4 Gift
What will I start giving away to share my talent, make a difference and build my reputation?
(Read: RAPs 5 + 6)

Get the full Book Rapper issue: Purple You

Redesigning Work and Organizations for the Digital Age (4)

Redesigning Work and Organizations for the Digital Age (4)

Derived from…
Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable
Previously
Redesigning Work and Organizations for the Digital Age (3)

Conversation
Traditional big-media technologies like TV, newspapers, advertising and PR promoted one-way conversations.
The internet and digital technologies have replaced this with two-way conversations.
This is a significant shift that requires organizations to be re-designed to listen, initiate, enable and participate in conversations internally and externally with customers and suppliers.
This is crucial for getting things done.

Book Rapper References

• Talk With Me (How to have Organizational Conversations)
• Brand Worship (Involving customers in brand building)
• We Blog (Another pathway for talking with your customers)
• Twittergy (Conversing with customers in new ways)

Design
In an era of dramatic change and global hyper-competition, the need for design, innovation, growth and learning within an organization is crucial.
A decentralized structure allows innovation to be embedded in the DNA of the organization through crowdsourcing and micro-business units.
Crowdsourcing is also central to brand building as it engages the customer almost to the point of ownership.
And, building a design thinking culture and work practices unites internal teams.

Book Rapper References

• The Bees Wees (Multiple examples of crowdsourcing)
• Brand Worship (Involving customers in brand building)
• Design Advantage (The Importance of Design Thinking)

Get the full Book Rapper issue: Purple You

Redesigning Work and Organizations for the Digital Age (3)

Redesigning Work and Organizations for the Digital Age (3)

Derived from…
Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable
Previously
Redesigning Work and Organizations for the Digital Age (2)

Leisure
The work modes of the Industrial Age reflected the machinery of the time.
We did standardized jobs in fixed locations and set blocks of time to produce standardized products marketed in standardized ways.
In the Information/Knowledge/Digital Age we can work wherever our brain is and whenever we feel like it on stuff that appeals to us.
The customized niche of designing your own work and lifestyle is the promise of the Leisure Age.
It’s the Leisure Age not because we are doing nothing, it’s because when we work in our passion/gift our work becomes our pleasure and leisure.

Book Rapper References

• The Four Hour JOLT! (The 40 hour work week retires)
• How to Think Right (The outsourcing of left-brain work)
• Make Money From Niches (the long tail of niches)
• Purple You (The demise of standardized work)

Not for Profit
Previously, owning the means to production was the key to making profits.
And there was a clear distinction between who owned it and who were the workers who ran it.
This line has blurred and possibly evaporated.
Now, via the internet the tools of production are in the hands of everyone with access.
As a direct result the pursuit of profit changes.
Even a so-called not-for-profit organization needs to pursue profit to fund the future.
The big difference is the need to make profit to fund a future and then make profit on top of that to feed shareholders.
Take away the shareholder level, add the freemium models and the gift economies and all of a sudden the pursuit of profit and ultimately capitalism changes.

Book Rapper References

• The Great Business Gestalt (Blurring of customer/company)
• Make Money From Niches (Change in digital economics
• Web Line (Shift in access to production
• Purple You (Shift in access to production)

Get the full Book Rapper issue: Purple You

Redesigning Work and Organizations for the Digital Age (2)

Redesigning Work and Organizations for the Digital Age (2)

Derived from…
Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable
Previously
Redesigning Work and Organizations for the Digital Age (1)

Connection
Traditional organizations were composed of various elements.
Marketing sat over there, sales was here, production down there and management upstairs.
No more.
The internet and digital technologies dissolves the boundaries between these internal divisions.
It also promotes co-operation between suppliers at an unprecedented level and with crowdsourcing the line is blurred between customer and company.
Add the ability to connect with people globally and you have a huge opportunity to work in new ways.

Book Rapper References

• The Great Business Gestalt (Building ecosystems)
• Global Glue (The power of connection technology)
• Google Think (Rethinking your organizational architecture)
• The Bees Wees (Numerous examples of crowdsourcing)
  

Social
We can no longer rely on corporations and governments to address social concerns such as climate change, the homeless or poverty.
New organizations will focus on fulfilling social needs.
Aligning to social causes is the key to branding.
And, it’s the lesson learnt from tribes forming on the internet.
Corporate Social Responsibility is mere icing on a stale cake.
Social Orientation designs the organization to create a profit that is channelled to fulfil the social need.
The younger generations won’t be interested without it.
And, through social media the means to connecting around events and causes is quicker and easier than ever before.

Book Rapper References

• Brand Worship (The potency of a cause in branding)

Get the full Book Rapper issue: Purple You

Redesigning Work and Organizations for the Digital Age

Redesigning Work and Organizations for the Digital Age

Derived from…
Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable
Previously
Related Reading to Seth Godin's Linchpin

BR Context : Business and Work Map
Lets draw some loose threads together...
Linchpin is another piece in the puzzle that we’ve been tracking at Book Rapper through most of our issues.
It revolves around two questions:

1. What does ‘work’ look like in the digital age?
2. And, what does an ‘organization’ look like in the digital age?

The starting point for this conversation is:

If you were designing work/organizations from scratch today, what would you create? How would it look?

Here’s eight design principles for todays work and organizations linked back to the Book Rapper issues that discuss these topics.

1 Leadership
Command and control leadership styles have flowed from the military.
In a decentralized world, they no longer works.
For instance, you can’t control the internet.
To be a leader here you need to build trust, respect and reputation.
Lighthouse Leadership is a very different way of looking at the world and interacting with people.
And, with generational change, the old leadership styles are less tolerated, further prompting new styles.

References

• Leaderful (Decentralized leadership)
• Web Line (The shift to online leadership)

2 Decentralized
The internet is the defining and all pervasive structure of modern society.
Any new organization would reflect this and be decentralized in its design and structure.
Or, at least be a fusion of centralized control and decentralized flexibility.
There are two basic ways of doing this:

1. Either separate business units that run independently of it’s parent company, like GE.
2. Or you can decentralize the customer experience, like Ebay.

This presents significant benefits with regard to building to scale through network effects especially through internet technologies.

References

• Leaderful (Decentralized organizations)
• The Great Business Gestalt (Network effects)

Get the full Book Rapper issue: Purple You

Related Reading to Seth Godin's Linchpin

Related Reading to Seth Godin's Linchpin

Derived from…
Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable
Previously
What's the opposite of Resistance?

Companion Pieces
If you want to expand your reading further, here’s four other Book Rapper issues that discuss the changing nature of work...

The Four Hour JOLT!
New rules for living and working.
Includes practical strategies for changing your work.
Including the promotion and retirement of the 40 hour work week.
Derived from: Timothy Ferris, The Four Hour Work Week

How to Think Right
Your Right Brained Career Path.
How left brain work is being outsourced.
And why your right brain skills are becoming increasingly important for your future career.
Derived from: Daniel Pink, A Whole New Mind

Design Advantage
The Secret to Creating Long-Term Value.
Of particular interest is the Knowledge Funnel.
It's a potent model for reviewing three important types of work that may influence your career direction.
Derived from: Roger Martin, The Design of Business

Web Line
How to succeed online.
Presents a similar view to Seth around being generous, giving gifts and the limits of quid pro quo.
Derived from: Chris Brogan and Julian Smith, Trust Agents

Get the full Book Rapper issue: Purple You

What's the opposite of Resistance?

What's the opposite of Resistance?

Derived from…
Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable
Previously
How to Overcome Your Natural Resistance

To Resist or Ship
Shipping is the opposite of resisting.
The reason we start anything is to finish it.
And, the only way to create a masterpiece is to finish.
It’s not a guarantee to master-piecedom and it is essential.
The world moves and changes when we publish.
Without it we only have wonderings.
Wondering what might be...
To be a Linchpin we need to put our art out there and into the world.
We need to ship.

Making Time to Ship
Here's four ways to increase the time you have to ship...

Internet Diet
Stop checking your email every five minutes. Instead limit it to five times a day. The same applies to social media...

Blitz
Go flat out for a short sprint and get things done. When you go fast there’s no time to be anxious!

Employ infrastructure
Use existing platforms to amplify your idea and results. For instance, use a publisher to get your book out quickly.

Use Seth’s Strategy

1. Highlight the date you’ll ship.
2. Take notes: use post-it notes, index cards or whatever to record every thing you can do about your idea.
3. Thrash out the idea with your team.
4. Collect your cards and discuss them with your team.
5. Put the cards into a database.
6. One person reviews the database and creates a complete project description.
7. Take the blueprint from step ➏ and get approval to proceed.
8. When you get a clear and decisive approval then start work.

Get the full Book Rapper issue: Purple You

How to Overcome your Natural Resistance

How to Overcome your Natural Resistance

Derived from…
Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable
Previously
How Gifting is Similar and Different to Freemium

RAP8 : Your Resistance
PROFIT : Faced with a new challenge, it’s likely you’re going to come face to face with your lizard brain. It’s going to jump to attention and try to talk you out of doing anything new or different. To create your art you’re going to need to address this. Here’s some clues...

Your Lizard Brain
Our brain is like a modern city built over the top of a medieval one.
The leftovers of the past continue to shape our current actions.
In particular our lizard brain is programmed to keep us safe, alive and fed.
Whereas the rest of our brain is designed to keep us happy, successful and part of society.
At times they’re competing forces.
And, to be a Linchpin requires you to quieten the cries of anxiety from our lizard brains.

Quietening The Lizard
There are two clear methods for managing your resistance to being an artist.

The first way is to seek reassurance.
If you fear you have left the oven turned on and your house is going to burn down, then go and check the oven.
By rewarding your anxiety it will quieten down - at least for now.
Unfortunately, you just trained it to show up again next time.

The second way is to sit with it.
That’s right, just notice it, acknowledge it, say ‘hello anxiety’ and become it’s friend.
At first, this may make it worse. However, if you can be with it long enough it will burn itself out and quietly disappear.
Eventually, the anxiety will diminish and run out of steam.

Get the full Book Rapper issue: Purple You

How Gifting is Similar and Different to Freemium

How Gifting is Similar and Different to Freemium

Derived from…
Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable
Previously
Building Your Tribe Through Your Art

RAP 7: Your Tribe (3)

Freemium and Gifts
There is a parallel to the ‘Freemium’ business model here.
A ‘Freemium’ model suggests you give away a basic version of your product or service and sell a ‘Premium’ or full featured service.
For example, Skype enables free web to web calls and charges for calls to landlines or mobiles.
Typically, 90% of your customers will accept the free service.
The advantage of offering a free service is to attract a bigger audience who sample, use and advocate your service.
Freemium is a business model.
Seth’s Linchpin model is for your personal career.
The big difference is intent.
To be an artist, you have to create art first.
This is the gift.
Whereas Freemium is not intended to be art, it’s business - it’s a reciprocity deal.

Building Your Tribe Through Your Art

Building Your Tribe Through Your Art

Derived from…
Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable
Previously
The Crucial First Step to Making Money From Your Art

RAP 7: Your Tribe (3)

Commerical
Previously, commerce was the centre of our world and the role of the artist was demoted to the fringes of attention.

Tribal
When you perform your art, you will attract some fans who may become followers and part of your tribe.
When your tribe grows to sufficient size some tribe members may want to buy your art.
Now, in this framework, commerce remains important and its no longer your first intention.

In one of his earlier books, Tribes, Seth Godin spoke about the need for leadership as a new form of marketing.
And leadership today revolves around connecting like minded people into tribes.

The Crucial First Step to Making Money From Your Art

The Crucial First Step to Making Money From Your Art

Derived from…
Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable
Previously
How Gifting Has Changed

RAP7 : Your Tribe
PROFIT : Previously commerce was centre stage because it was more profitable to produce average products for average people. Art was marginalized. Today, art is central. Your new model for success is: Create art first, a tribe will likely follow and commerce will fall out of this.

Performing Your Art
Consider a busker performing in the street.
Some passers by will stop, others won’t.
Some will applaud, others won’t.
Some will tip a coin into their hat, others won’t.
If the busker doesn’t ply his art, there is no performance, no fans, followers, tribe or commerce.

It all begins with the busker’s art. By being the artist and sharing their gift, the opportunity is created for tribes to congregate and ultimately for commerce to occur.

Now, there’s an obvious ‘maybe’ in this approach.
There’s no guarantee anyone will want to pay for your art.
An alternative approach is to design your art for an audience.
However, as soon as you take this route you’re not doing your art anymore.
You’ve contaminated it.
Either way, you have choice: To do your art or not.
Once you’ve created your work then invent a way to monetize it.

How Gifting Has Changed

How Gifting Has Changed

Derived from…
Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable
Previously
The Renaissance of the Gift Culture

RAP6 : Your Gifts (2)

To Give
Giving gifts was traditionally seen as an expression of power.
‘You must be powerful if you can afford to give things away.’
And, in a tribal culture giving was an important part of enabling others to flourish.
Gifting is returning in importance in the digital economy because it is so much cheaper to be generous with your gift and let your ideas spread.

To Get
A couple of centuries ago, money and structured society flipped the tradition of giving.
Rather than give a gift, it became a sign of power to receive.
To receive gifts meant ‘you must be important’ because people would only give gifts to gain your trust and favour.

To Give and Get
To Give and Get is not a true gift.
This is a trade or an exchange.
This has become the basis for the capitalist system.
I get your product if I give you enough money in return.
Reciprocity is a form of give and get, it’s an expectation that if I give you something now I will get something back later.

The Renaissance of the Gift Culture

The Renaissance of the Gift Culture

Derived from…
Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable
Previously
Shepard Fairey: Poster Child of the Gift Culture

The Growing Gift Culture
The gift culture is growing in importance for three important reasons:

1. The internet promotes a gift culture because the cost to give away a digital product is so low.
2. To be an artist you need to create the work for it’s own sake. To create it with money in mind is to pollute it.
3. The act of giving quietens the resistance of your lizard brain and frees you up to do your best work.

To be a Linchpin you need to be indispensable.
To be indispensable you need to create your best work.
And, the key to this is to free yourself from the results it will produce.
An artist works for art’s sake.
And, a true artist’s work is always a gift.
Turn your contribution into a gift for art’s sake.

Shepard Fairey: Poster Child of the Gift Culture

Shepard Fairey: Poster Child of the Gift Culture

Derived from…
Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable
Previously
Your Art: From Mechanical to Digital

RAP6 : Your Gifts
PROFIT : The way we interact with each other is changing. Central to the capitalist system is giving to get. In contrast, the internet is emerging as a gift culture where giving freely is normal. And, this is the intent behind sharing your art. The Gift Culture

When Shepard Fairey created the Obama Hope poster he set out to make some money and support his political beliefs.
From his initial print run, he sold 350 copies and gave away another 350.
By October 2009, he’d printed 300,000 posters and sold only 2000 of them.
The rest were given away.
(Source: Wikipedia)

To give away 99% of your product doesn’t sound like good business practice.
Think of all the money he left on the printing table.
Yet, from that one poster, Fairey’s career is now firmly established.
His poster became the icon of the Obama campaign, was acquired by the Smithsonian for the National Portrait Gallery and he now has an international reputation.
He’s also become the poster-child (sic) of the gift culture built on generosity.

Your Art: From Mechanical to Digital

Your Art: From Mechanical to Digital

Derived from…
Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable
Previously
What's Your Special Talent?

RAP5 : Your Art (2)

Mechanical
The Industrial Revolution revolved around handmade goods being replaced by machine made ones.
This prompted the rise of standardization and predictable products.
And, industrial marketing followed suit.
Factories needed workers to be cogs in their bigger machine.
If you were an artist making your own handmade, personalized contributions you were pushed to the outer.

Digital
The Digital and Internet Revolution has enabled customized goods to be made as easily as standardized ones.
Plus, it has given access to production to everyone with a laptop.
The resultant flood of output and creative energy has literally turned the game inside out.
To be noticed you need to be different, special and remarkable.
The work of the artist has returned to centre stage.

What's Your Special Talent?

What's Your Special Talent?

Derived from…
Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable
Previously
Today's CV: Do I need one?

RAP5 : Your Art

PROFIT : What’s your special talent, your genius, your gift, your artistry? The ancient greek aphorism ‘Know Thyself’ is the clue you need to revealing your great talent. And here’s eight suggestions for you to uncover what your artfulness is made of.

Link
Are you the bridge, the interface & the connection between management and workers or company and customers?

Manage
Can you manage situations of great complexity? Do you stand tallest when the crisis is the deepest?

Know
Can you combine deep domain knowledge with smart decision making in an inclusive way?

Humble
Are you the open, kind and generous one who can see a situation for what it is without the filter of arrogance?

Create
Are you truly the creative one with the insight, courage and generosity? Do you turn ideas into things that ship?

Possess
Do you possess a superpower talent like Superman? Perhaps, you’re unstoppable, have laser-like focus or you’re invincible in the face of opposition...

Lead
Are you the one that connects, identifies and revels in interacting with your customers? Do your customers respect, follow and admire you?

Inspire
Can you inspire, motivate and excite your team to make things happen?

Today's CV: Do I need a CV?

Today's CV: Do I need one?

Derived from…
Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable
Previously
New Rules for Your New Career

RAP4 : Your New Job (2)

To CV or not to CV?
Do you need a CV to get your next prized role?
Well, that depends on the job you’re applying for.
If it’s a standardized role that many cogs could fill, it’s likely you will need one.
That’s because a standard job will have a standard application process that requires the standard CV.
It’s much easier for the recruiters to slash the applicants down to the chosen few this way.

If this is the case for your next role, then you need to ask:

• ‘Am I applying for the right role?’
• ‘If I got this role, is there going to be room for me to practise my art and share my gifts?’
  

If you’re in HR and getting poor candidates, check your process.

To really get a great job you’ll need to stand out so instead of a CV...

• Write a compelling blog.
• Get three extraordinary letters of recommendation.
• Create a list of great projects you’ve worked on.
• Build a reputation that precedes you.

New Rules for Your New Career

New Rules for Your New Career

Derived from…
Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable
Previously
What's your world: Scarcity or Generosity?

RAP4 : Your New Job
PROFIT : Being a Linchpin is not about quitting your job. It’s about being an artist and doing great work in your current job, your future job and your own business. Here’s some Linchpinning (someone had to turn it into a verb!) rules for making your job work.

Ship!
Steve Jobs once said ‘Real Artists Ship’. They get things done, they work things out and they deliver. What are you shipping and when is it going out?

Stand
Stand out because you’re willing to stand up. That’s your new work motto. Hold true to your values, don’t sell out, voice your thoughts and be willing to cause the results that’s needed.

Map
Real artists don’t paint by numbers. They start with a blank canvas. Throw out the instruction manual & start creating your own map. Yep, this one might just get you into trouble and into your art. At some point to truly be an artist you’ll need to create a fresh path.

Now!
Artists are artists. They don’t turn it on and off like a light switch. And they don’t blame their tools. They use what’s in front of them to make art. That’s why it’s art! If you’re waiting for the right time, tools and place you’re resisting!

Change
Be bold, be brave and be a catalyst for change. If there’s no change, there’s no art. Be the designer who is deliberately creating the future you want to see rather than being at the effect of the one imposed upon you.

Whole
Turning up to work is not enough. You need to bring your whole body, mind, heart, soul, attention, intention and emotions to your work. Start caring, daring and baring it all at work. Art is created by humans for humans. Re-humanize your work!

Art
Not all artists can draw. Some dance, some sing, some talk, some get things done, some make it happen, some connect others, some say what others won’t. What’s your gift? Define your genius and create your art.

Work
Artists don’t just talk about things - unless that’s their art. You’ll need to spend the time, commit your emotions and devote yourself fully to your work. Anything less wouldn’t be worthy of a true artist.

What's your world: Scarcity or Generosity?

What's your world: Scarcity or Generosity?

Derived from…
Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable
Previously
I am a Genius

RAP3 : Your Choice (3)

Your Worldview
How do you see the world?

• Do you play to protect and restrict and ultimately maintain the status quo?
• Or are you actively playing to enlarge the pie for everyone?
• Are you living in scarcity?
• Do you hang onto, hide and hoard your best ideas?
• Do you see a limited range of opportunities or are they bountiful?
• Are you stingy or generous?

The generous spirit shares their gift.
They create and innovate to produce better results for everyone.
And the more they contribute the more rewards come their way.
Who do you choose to be in the future?
Scarce or generous?
A cog or a Linchpin?
Choose!

Are you a genius?

Are you a genius?

Derived from…
Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable
Previously
Are You a Cog or a Linchpin?

RAP3 : Your Choice (2)

I Am A Genius.
Making the choice to become a Linchpin revolves around this fundamental question:

Are you willing to accept that you are a genius?

All of us have been a genius on at least one occasion.
Can you remember your magic moments?
Most of us don’t think of ourselves as a genius because we expect to be that all the time.
Clearly, a genius doesn’t run late for meetings, lose their car keys or sit on their sunglasses.
None of us are born indispensable.
We need to make ourselves and train ourselves to be Linchpins.
Your choice is to either suppress or express your natural inclinations.
What’s it going to be?
Choose!