Tagged: linchpin
Linchpin – Seth Godin (Chapter 12: When it Doesn’t Work)
This is the final chapter of Linchpin. As you can tell, I really enjoyed this book and I hope you got some value out of my notes. Next up on The Bank of Notes is Rework by 37signals; I recently read it again and I have a lot more to say about it now (my previous notes were far too brief for such a brilliant book).
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“My boss won’t let me” is the most common objection to the Linchpin philosophy. As Godin says:
Nine times out often, this isn’t true. One time out of ten, you should get a new job. (225)
If your company actually demands conformity and mediocrity, there’s no good reason to stay. You’re not building any valuable skills, you can’t be enjoying it, and your value in the marketplace depreciates the longer you stay.
What’s more common is that your boss doesn’t understand why you’re not more enthusiastic and would love for you to become a linchpin.
There’s a difference between “my boss won’t let me” and “my boss won’t explicitly endorse everything I do and take the fall if I mess up.”
“The vivid truth is this: now that we have the freedom to create, we must embrace the fact that not all creations are equal, and some people aren’t going to win. That doesn’t mean you’re a loser…perhaps your art lies somewhere else.” (226-227)
“Do your art. But don’t wreck your art if it doesn’t lend itself to paying the bills. That would be a tragedy.” (228)
As you figure out how to make money doing what you love without compromising it, find a way to love whatever you currently happen to be doing to make money.
The system is still adjusting to the new economy and the increasing importance of linchpins. Even if you have some awesome idea, it’s still your responsibility to sell it to your boss.
“Your boss has a worldview, too. When you propose something that triggers his resistance, what do you expect will happen?” (229)
“Focus on making changes that work down, not up. Interacting with customers and employees is often easier than influencing bosses and investors.”
“Don’t ask your boss to run interference, cover for you, or take the blame. Instead, create moments where your boss can happily take credit. Once that cycle begins, you can be sure it will continue.”
Linchpin – Seth Godin (Chapter 11: The Seven Abilities of the Linchpin)
Linchpins do two things for the organization. They exert emotional labor and they make a map. Those contributions take many forms. Here is one way to think about the list of what makes you indispensible… (218)
1. A Unique Interface Between Members of the Organization
“In great organizations, there’s a sense of mission. The tribe is racking up accomplishments, going somewhere. That mission doesn’t happen accidentally. A linchpin helps lead, and he connects people in the organization, actively and with finesse.” (219)
2. Delivering Unique Creativity
“If you want to create a unique guitar riff, it sure helps if you’ve heard all the other guitar riffs on record. Unique implies that the creativity is focused and insightful.”
The word “delivering” in this context means that you have to be passionate enough to overcome resistance and fear of rejection in order to ship.
3. Managing a Situation or Organization of Great Complexity
The more complex something becomes, the more unlikely it is that there’s a perfectly appropriate manual to rely on.
Linchpins are extremely valuable for precisely this reason: they are able to make their own maps. Linchpins “allow the organization to navigate much more quickly than it ever could if it had to wait for the paralyzed crowd to figure out what to do next.” (220)
4. Leading Customers
Usually, the mission and purpose of a company is something that only circulates internally, between its employees. But the Linchpin also expresses it through the way in which he interacts with customers.
In this sense, he sees marketing as an exercise in leadership.
5. Inspiring Staff
Definition of “inspire”:
Fill (someone) with the urge or ability to do or feel something, esp. to do something creative: “his enthusiasm inspired them”.
Since their environment is more dynamic, employees of modern organizations are usually more unclear about their responsibilities than a factory worker is. Not the linchpin. His focus is always to make something happen, and he inspires people to unleash their own art as well.
6. Providing Deep Domain Knowledge
“Mapmakers often have the confidence to draw maps because they understand their subject so deeply.” (222)
7. Possessing a Unique Talent
“When you meet someone, you need to have a superpower. If you don’t, you’re just another handshake. It’s not about touting yourself or coming on too strong. It’s about making the introduction meaningful. If I don’t know your superpower, then I don’t know how you can help me (or I can help you). (222-223)
Both parts of the portmanteau “superpower” are key: “super” implies that it’s a unique skill; “power” implies that you’re one of the best in the world at it.
But no matter what, we all fail sometimes. Accept it, it’s okay.
Linchpin – Seth Godin (Chapter 10: The Culture of Connection)
The five elements of personality are also signs of a linchpin:
- Openness
- Conscientiousness
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Emotional Stability
“It’s so easy to fall into the trap of focusing on using a spreadsheet or a timeclock to measure your progress, but in fact, it’s the investment in your interactions that will pay off.” (211)
“The linchpin is coming from a posture of generosity; she’s there to give a gift. If that’s your intent, the words almost don’t matter. What we’ll perceive are your wishes, not the script.” (214)
The lizard brain is extremely effective at picking up the micro-signals that reveal people’s true intentions.
“The only successful way to live in a world of honest signals is to give the genuine gift.” (215)
“You can certainly try to be the rational best-price, most-convenient alternative. But if you can’t do that (and who can?), then the only path available to you is to change me, connect with me, or make a difference in my life.” (216)
“The people you work for won’t change if you don’t believe. The communication of enthusiasm and connection and leadership starts with the gift you give, not the manipulation you attempt.” (217)
Linchpin – Seth Godin (Chapter 9: Making the Choice)
Seth Godin hates the board game “Candy Land” (and all other games of pure chance) because all you do is draw cards and follow their instructions; it just train you to follow instructions mindlessly.
“You can either fit in or stand out. Not both.” (194)
The relationship between a customer and a business is transactional; the customer gives the business money and receives a commodity in return. The customer is the boss. If he finds a business that has a better offering (cheaper, better, faster), he’ll spend his money elsewhere. This dynamic also exists between a boss and an employee, the latter is also a commodity.
The key to making yourself more than just a commodity, the key to becoming indispensable, is your gift.
“If you give your boss the gift of art, insight, initiative, or connection, she’s less likely to shop around every day looking to replace the commodity work you do, because the work you do isn’t a commodity.” (196)
This is also true in the customer/business context; if the store gives a customer the unexpected gift of great service, connection, etc., he’ll be less likely to switch to another store because he’s getting more than just a commodity. The customer is getting a unique, personal experience that, by definition, can’t be found anywhere else.
“Creating a career where you are seen as the indispensable linchpin may at first seem to be a selfish goal on your part, but you will achieve this goal by giving selfless gifts, and those benefit everyone.” (197)
The conventional wisdom is that your job should match your passion, but Godin argues that this is backwards. He claims that it is possible and, in fact, very easy to transfer your passion to your job.
The three choices a linchpin has in a linchpin-scarce world:
1. Hire a bunch of factory workers and build an empire as you scale like crazy, taking advantage of people that undervalue their own labor (which is most).
2. Find a boss who appreciates and needs a linchpin, and who will reward you appropriately for making a difference.
3. Start an organization and stuff it with indispensable linchpins, thus making the organization itself indispensable.
“If you are not currently doing any of (the above options), refuse to settle. You deserve better.” (202)
A great sentence stem to complete in order to gain personal insight: “I could be more creative if only…”
In fact, any sentence stem that ends with “if only” is great because it exposes, and leads to the subsequent removal of, all barriers to action.
“For many of us, the happiest future is one that’s precisely like the past, except a little better.” (203)
Nostalgia for the future is an unhealthy attachment to a positive future outcome that you’ve visualized. It will make you overvalue the details that lead to that outcome and undervalue alternatives that could dramatically improve your situation.
For example, the New York Times turned down a potentially game-changing mega-deal with Amazon.com because management has nostalgia for a future of steady growth with little changes otherwise.
When you fall in love with a specific future outcome, you’ll feel irrational stress and take irrational action in order to maintain the future quo.
“Don’t let your circumstances or habits rule your choices today. Become a master of yourself and use your willpower to choose.” (206)
Nothing about becoming indispensable is easy. If it’s easy, it’s already been done and it’s no longer valuable.
What will make someone a linchpin is not a shortcut. It’s the understanding of which hard work is worth doing. (207)
Linchpin – Seth Godin (Chapter 8: There Is No Map)
If obedient cogs are commonplace in the market, then, by definition, the ability to create your own map and be self-directed is extremely uncommon and undeniably valuable.
“You can’t make a map unless you can see the world as it is. You have to know where you are and where you’re going before you can figure out how to go about getting there.” (174)
Too often, the personal biases of people affect their judgment. If you can cultivate a Zen state of unattachment and see things for what they are, you can be truly objective.
A sign of unhealthy attachment is when you try to psychically influence other people’s opinions about you and/or your project (eg: You ask them what they think, then start wrinkling your forehead intently).
Being attached to the past or some imagined future makes you deny the present; this is how the music industry collapsed even though the warning signs were obvious, and it’s why many other businesses ultimately fail.
If you’re able to look at what’s happening in your world and say, “There’s the pattern,” or “Wow, that’s interesting, I wonder why,” then you’re far more likely to respond productively than if your reaction is “How dare he!”
“Here’s the truth you have to wrestle with: the reason that art (writing, engaging, leading, all of it) is valuable is precisely why I can’t tell you how to do it. If there were a map, there’d be no map because art is the act of navigating without a map.” (188)
“The problem with being outwardly focused is that we have no center, nothing to return to. The problem with outward focus is that there is no compass, no way to tell if we’re in balance.”
Linchpin – Seth Godin (Chapter 7: The Powerful Culture of Gifts)
The internet has lowered the marginal cost of giving things away for free.
When an artist gives something of value away for free, it creates an emotional vacuum – since we can’t repay him, we’re eager to do something else for him in return at some point.
That being said, the key to gift-giving (besides making sure that the gift is of value) is that the act of generosity is an end in itself for you; in other words, that you don’t NEED anything else in return.
Gifts also signal others that we have plenty more to share, even and especially if the gifts are grandiose (eg: 200-page PDF offered for free online).
When you give a gift, you’re going beyond the idea of a simple transaction. You’re relinquishing an opportunity to profit directly in order to build a bond with someone.
Three ways people think about gifts:
1. Give me a gift!
2. Here’s a gift; now you owe me, big-time.
3. Here’s a gift, I love you.
In the short-term, it’s certainly possible for gift-giving artists to give more than they get. But the market values these generous, creative geniuses far too much for them not to succeed in the long-term.
“If you are fortunate enough to find an artist, you should work hard to pay him as much as you can afford, because if you don’t, someone else will.” (172)
Linchpin – Seth Godin (Chapter 5: Is It Possible to Do Hard Work in a Cubicle?)
“An artist is someone who uses bravery, insight, creativity, and boldness to challenge the status quo.” (83)
Seth Godin hates the idea of “a day’s work for a day’s pay.” He thinks it cheapens us.
Are you really willing to sell yourself out so cheap? Do you mortgage an entire (irreplaceable) day of your life for a few bucks? The moment you are willing to sell your time for money is the moment you cease to be the artist you’re capable of being.
The alternative is to treasure what it means to do a day’s work. It’s our one and only chance to do something productive today, and it’s certainly not available to someone merely because he is the high bidder. A day’s work is your chance to do art, to create a gift, to do something that matters. As your work gets better and your art becomes more important, competition for your gifts will increase and you’ll discover that you can be choosier about whom you give them to. (87)
“It’s impossible to make art for everyone. There are too many conflicting goals and there’s far too much noise. Art for everyone is mediocre, bland, and ineffective.” (94)
“An artist’s job is to change us. When you have a boss, your job is to please the boss, not to change her.” (95)
“The job is not the work” – The job is what you do because you are told to do it. There will always be someone who can do your job more cost-efficiently than you. Your art can only be done when no one can tell you exactly how to do it. It is, as Godin puts it, “the act of taking personal responsibility, challenging the status quo, and changing people.” (97)
Ask yourself, are you indispensible with your family and friends? Now what about at work? Why are you so expendible in one setting and not the other?
Most people are afraid of expressing their art, which stems from their indoctrinated fear of standing out.
“Now, though, the economy is forcing us to confront this fear. The economy is ruthlessly punishing the fearful, and increasing the benefits to the few who are brave enough to create art” (100)
Linchpin – Seth Godin (Chapter 4: Becoming the Linchpin)
Types of organizations that don’t need Linchpins: “Organizations that are centralized, monopolistic, static, safe, cost-sensitive” (55)
In fact, these companies should look for the cheapest drones possible. But they shouldn’t expect to grow or have much customer loyalty.
“Today, if all you have to offer is that you know a lot of reference book information, you lose, because the Internet knows more than you do.”
However, Godin emphasizes the following point: “Depth of knowledge combined with good judgment is worth a lot.”
“Expertise gives you enough insight to reinvent what everyone else assumes is the truth.” (56)
Degrees of freedom – you have very few choices on a bus (get on or get off), a few more when you’re driving (which road to take), and infinitely more when you’re walking.
“In the face of an infinite sea of choices, it’s natural to put blinders on, to ask for a map, to beg for instructions, or failing that, to do exactly what you did last time, even if it didn’t work. Linchpins are able to embrace the lack of structure and find a new path, one that works.” (58)
Our society values being error-free (“Get nothing wrong and you get an A, right?”). The flaw in this approach is that art is never defect-free.
The problem with bowling is that it’s an asymptotic sport – the best you can ever do is get 300.
“The only way to prove (as opposed to assert) that you are an indispensable linchpin–someone worth recruiting, moving to the top of the pile, and hiring–is to show, not tell. Projects are the new resumes.” (73)
Even if you are a linchpin, you often won’t be able to convince the standard HR establishments to make an exception for you. That’s fine. Your goal should be to look for companies that understand the value of a linchpin – companies that hire people, not just resumes.
Groucho Marx famously said, “I don’t care to belong to any club that would have me as a member.”
The linchpin says, “I don’t want a job that a non-linchpin could get.”
Linchpin – Seth Godin (Chapter 2: Thinking About Your Choice)
“If you want a job where it’s okay to follow the rules, don’t be surprised if you get a job where following the rules is all you get to do.” (29)
“If you want a job where you get to do more than follow instructions, don’t be surprised if you get asked to do things they never taught you in school.” (30)
One of the main themes of the book is: unskilled laborers are not being rewarded in the same way that they used to, therefore, you must become indispensible so that people have no choice but to reward you.
The three words that can kill an entire organization: “Not my job.”
“In a factory, doing a job that’s not yours is dangerous. Now, if you’re a linchpin, doing a job that’s not getting done is essential.” (34)
Would your organization be more successful if your employees were more obeidient?
“Or, consider for a second: would you be more successful if your employees were more artistic, motivated, connected, aware, passionate, and genuine?
You can’t have both, of course.
“When you’re not a cog in a machine, an easily replaceable commodity, you’ll get paid what you’re worth. Which is more.” (35)
“When customers have the choice between faceless options, they pick the cheapest, fastest, more direct option.”
“In a world that relentlessly races to the bottom, you lose if you also race to the bottom. The only way to win is to race to the top.”
Linchpin – Seth Godin (Chapter 1: The New World of Work)
This book is about love and art and change and fear. It’s about overcoming a multigenerational conspiracy designed to sap your creativity and restlessness. It’s about leading and making a difference and it’s about succeeding. I couldn’t have written this book ten years ago, because ten years ago, our economy wanted you to fit in, it paid you well to fit in, and it took care of you if you fit in. Now, like it or not, the world wants something different from you. We need to think hard about what reality looks like now.
-Seth Godin: Linchpin, page 2
It is becoming much easier for companies to replace people, therefore Godin argues that the only way to be truly secure is to be indispensible.
Godin argues that people get brainwashed into repressing their talents and dreams to work as factory cogs because of an implicit, attractive promise made by companies and bosses: “follow these instructions and you don’t have to think.” (9)
“Like scared civilians eager to do whatever a despot tells them, we give up our freedoms and responsibilities in exchange for the certainty that comes from being told what to do.”
Seth Godin’s criticism of The E-Myth Revisited: “If you make your business possible to replicate, you’re not going to be the one to replicate it. Others will. If you build a business filled with rules and procedures that are designed to allow you to hire cheap people, you will have to produce a product without humanity or personalization or connection. Which means that you’ll have to lower your prices to compete. Which leads to a race to the bottom.” (11)
The day-laborers that wait in front of hardware stores looking to be picked up for cheap labor are not much different than most businesses and employees. They stand next to a bunch of other similar entities, waiting to be picked – usually by someone who is pressed for time and is just looking for which one seems the cheapest.
A problem: “Consumers are not loyal to cheap commodities. They crave the unique, the remarkable, and the human.” (13)
“There are no longer any great jobs where someone else tells you precisely what to do.” (14)
“History is now being written by the artists while the factory workers struggle. The future belongs to chefs, not to cooks or bottle washers. It’s easy to buy a cookbook (filled with instructions to follow) but really hard to find a chef book.” (18)
“Our world no longer fairly compensates people who are cogs in a giant machine. There’s stress because for many of us, that’s all we know. Schools and society have reinforced this approach for generations.” (19)
Capitalism demands the best in us, and as such, attendance-based compensation (ABC) jobs in which you just have to show up to get a paycheck are dwindiling. Getting an unskilled job is like putting yourself in the path of a buzzsaw.
“You don’t become indispensable merely because you are different. But the only way to be indispensable is to be different. That’s because if you’re the same, so are plenty of other people.” (27)
The Bank of Notes 