Linchpin

I Recommend

These are some of the titles that shaped my thinking in the last year.

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
Design choice architecture
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
Finding your purpose changes everything!
The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways To Use Social Media to Drive Social Change
Brilliant approach to activating a movement
Nonprofit Strategy Revolution: Real-Time Strategic Planning in a Rapid-Response World
The strategic planning model I use
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Leverage your passion
Zilch: The Power of Zero in Business
Nonprofit ideas in the corporate world
Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
Maximize your talents
Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
Understand and guide change
A. Gawande's The Checklist Manifesto(The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right [Hardcover])(2009)
Pilots will not fly without a checklist- why should you?
Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion
Making a run at the motivational gold medal
Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust
Who influences you and how?
The Networked Nonprofit: Connecting with Social Media to Drive Change
The guide to social media

What influenced you in 2010?

Tolerance and Thrashing

Is there somebody at your organization that always has the wild ideas?  You know the zany concepts about radically altering the way your organization does business?  Does this individual contain an bottomless well of new approaches?  Does your organization thrive on the suggestions or is it disruptive?


One of the concepts I have come to readily adopt is the idea of thrashing.  Thrashing is represented by the active brainstorming and manipulation of a new or existing idea.  It can take place in many stages of development and its impact varies.  Perhaps a visual representation offers more clarity.





Thrashing works exceedingly well at the inception of an idea.  It is what allows a foal to find its legs and begin to walk.  Without a willingness to put everything on the line the foal is doomed to suffer an unfavorable evolutionary ending.  Thrashing works less well when done later in the development stage.  The results can be more destructive than productive.







Seth Godin’s book Linchpin makes an interesting case for the value of thrashing.

“Thrashing is essential.  The question is: when to thrash?  In the typical amateur project, all the thrashing is near the end.  The closer we got to shipping, the more people get involved, the more meetings we have, the more likely the CEO wants to be involved.  And why not?  What’s the point of getting involved early when you can’t see what’s already done and your work will probably be redone anyway.  The point of getting everyone involved early is simple: thrash late and you won’t ship.  Thrash late and you introduce bugs.  Professional creators thrash early.  The closer the project gets to completion, the fewer people see it and the fewer changes are permitted.”



Tolerance is an amazing part of any organization’s culture.  It allows for innovation and new concepts.  An enterprise with a willingness to tolerate a wide range of ideas is powerful.  Having a value system in place to be accepting attracts lots of fans.  However, creating an agreement about when the time for input is being closed is equally important.  At some point you need one person to make the decision, even if it is a decision to vote.  One person needs to take all the inputs and write the strategic plan.  One person needs to be empowered to enter into a contract on behalf of the organization.  If you thrash late you may never seize any opportunities now matter how great the idea.

Being Your Best

I have read and been repeatedly inspired by Marcus Buckingham’s books.  I embrace the theory that you maximize an individual’s talents and mitigate their weaknesses.  He recently released a new book titled Find Your Strongest Life that I anticipate reading as soon as I finish Seth Godin’s Linchpin.

I am always searching for the best question to ask at the right moment.  Marcus has a five-point strategy for problem solving.  Number three is listed below: 

Change follows the line of your questioning. Instead of asking, “What’s wrong?” ask, “What does it look like when it’s working?”

Checkout the rest of the steps on Oprah’s website along with tactics for decision-making, switching careers and developing connections.

Training Your Competition

When I lived in a ski resort town in Idaho I was a volunteer member of the local fired department.  The fire department developed a policy that required new members to serve a probational year after which a firefighter who met certain requirements could begin to advance their medical and fire ground training beyond the core curriculum.  At first this policy felt like a glass ceiling because many of the new paid-on-call volunteers had a lot of energy, time and were motivated to learn as much as possible.  After inquiring about the process, I learned the rule had developed partly to comply with professional fire fighting standards but its real roots existed in the classic resort town struggle.  In earlier years volunteers were obtaining their Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) certification by joining the fire department in September and completing the course over the winter.  When the snow began to melt and the rivers ran high, some of the newly minted EMTs headed to work for the whitewater rafting companies.  Many of these companies required EMT certification or paid more if you had the training.  The volunteers had taken the course at the expense of the fire department and then bolted for the river.  After a couple years of developing frustration the fire department instituted the probational year as an assessment tool to quantify the aptitude and initiative of each member.  This is one method to ensure retention of your staff.

Alternatively, Seth Godin argues that if you hire exceptional people and provide a dynamic workplace retention will not be your issue.  Godin’s recent book Linchpins speaks at length about the old factory paradigm and how it is becoming obsolete.  He points to companies like Zapoos which are almost infectious with enthusiasm.  Places where the people do their best because of the their personal motivations, not because of a policy.

Both systems are in play.  The question is which one adds to your organizational culture?  Which one holds your best and brightest at a average pace that most everyone can achieve?

Are you training your competition’s employees?  Have you created a dynamic environment that attracts talented individuals?  Are your best people recruiting new employees for you?