The New Game of Work

Future Shock in the ‘60s said we can't accommodate so much change before a melt-down; but change happens fast and it takes time to recognize and adapt. We did not melt-down, we coped.

Traditional old processes, like Information Interviews – mainstay of job transitions, don’t work anymore – much of the info is on the internet, LinkedIn and other social sites manage distant relationships. Now computers do what used to be entry-level jobs.

What to expect in the next 3 years:

• Do it yourself (DIY)
• Fix yourself – reorient how you get and use information and vision
• Scale – small or large; do you need an expert? Or will you rely on yourself?

Fail Forward Frequently (F³) – Do projects: experiment and learn; experiment again.

Doing a project for first time, it takes more effort and time than the next time. We learn from the first one and make the second one better. Learn and Apply.

Same is true doing something alien and strange for the first time – like new technology. Enough said?

What’s here now and what’s next: Chris Anderson: Makers; David Weinberger: Too Big to Know – two books about manufacturing and information acquisition changes that are radically affecting our world.Traits of a leader:

• Relentlessly tell yourself the truth and require it of others
• Surround yourself with people committed to change
• Keep reading, keep learning, keep doing, and keep sharing.

Economy is about 80-20 right now, but not evenly distributed – 80% below before but 20% is on fire. Why? Absence of buying customers. The winners are providing what customers need and want.The new game is more focused on you, rather than an organization. If you are not doing something worthy, start doing something worthy. The era of merely being a follower has ended – contributors welcome, others are 'retired'. For tasks – add technology not people. Meet ‘Boots’.

After 30 years of high water in the pond, we are now seeing the shopping carts & tires. Eliminate waste and 'cheap' inefficiency (serious change requires redesign – no avoiding it).

Business is NOT about being a bench-warmer and getting a ‘show-up’ trophy at the end of the year. Business is all about getting results, paying bills, and reinvesting for tomorrow.

Success comes from doing real work – not from the poseurs - no matter how articulate - who are not producing. Do it alone or collaborate, but share to build better with more efficiency

What To Do Each Day:

• What goals are you working to achieve – make progress
• How are you acquiring knowledge – apply it – share it
• Stay current with:
• your profession
• your industry
• technology, business, and the global marketplace
• Talk with customers to find out what they want and need – then provide it
• Anticipate the next 'better mousetrap'.

Will any of this help in the marketplace? You Bet!

Every day you must make progress toward the goal. After all, the marketplace is always in motion – stand still and you're losing ground.

The good news about rapidly changing technology is everyone must start at the beginning! As with mastering a new game, it requires investing time and effort.

It's new, so no one has an immediate edge...they must learn it too. Past experience can speed success, but so can focus and devoting time. First adopters have an advantage; subsequent adopters can get in as well – harder but possible. Late adopters must have that better mousetrap to enter – think of Apple with the iPod and iPhone.

The new game of work requires an open mind and creativity, rather than sticking to the traditional approach – for example if you were in HR, would you hire Seth Godin? Stick to puzzle piece recruiting on outdated specs vs. shopping for potential.

The new game rules also:

• Always provide value
• Sales – what do they want - I met him; he gave me a lapel pin; I gave him a show to present his program
• Share and Be Visible – write a blog, comment on a post, show up and contribute
• The 20 – 2 – 1 Rule: twenty face-to-face meetings a month; two blog posts a week; one event you own a month.
• Have a Top 10 – what you're good at.
• Who's successful? Get up and do what they do.

After all, work is like a game – do the right thing and get better – you win; coast and PacMan will eat you!


Join us Tuesday September 10^th at 6:30 PM for theCapital Technology Management Hub (CTMH) meeting (it's FREE) at Teqcorner in McLean, VA. Sales Lab'sRainmaker 21 – Your Dealer Network, 300 seconds of enlightenment, preceding the headliner presentation,What is the New Game of Work? by Jack Gates,Sales Lab. How to Register - CLICK HERE

The Autonomous Economy

I walk into an airport, feed a credit card into the kiosk, which spits out a boarding pass. At the same time, my seat is blocked, my meal, beer, and pillow are released, TSA knows I am coming, the gate knows I am coming, the flight crew knows I am coming, the incoming gate at my hub knows I am coming, and I am boarded on my next flight.

I didn’t realize that until one time I was transferring in Philadelphia and the video board was down.

A human attendant looked at his clipboard, and told me to go to the wrong gate all the way across the airport. I got there and found out my exit gate was actually just two away from my entry gate.

When I got back to my gate, the airline was holding the plane. They knew I was in the airport somewhere.

Now before all this computerization, a small part of that data was communicated by harried humans with clipboards. They are mostly gone now. That’s why when the plane system burps, there is no hope of getting a fix by standing in line.

Switching a business from the carbon-based units with clipboards to the silicon-based units with screens takes time. Humans are better at improvising, and can communicate with other humans.

Computers are vastly cheaper, and when the system is complete, can communicate better with computers.

From an operating cost model, reducing your business to computer driven data makes sense no matter how difficult it is. The first in an industry to successfully implement an automated system gets an enormous advantage. The problem is when your system inadvertently maximizes customer prevention.

Banks and airlines know that a mal-system interlude can tank your customer sat. If the Internet never forgets, how long do angry customers hold a grudge?

When I read about the disappearing middle class, I remember all the people with clipboards outwitting their business systems to get me home. By the same token, anyone who hides a known system burp has to be taken out of the loop, as that burp often represents hundreds or thousands of instances that went unreported.

Open Source Leadership teaches us that more eyeballs get the problem fixed easier and faster. It used to be that we were trying to get a little more time before reporting to try to come up with a solution. Today that is exactly the wrong way to play.

Where do you see the autonomous economy changing your life, for better or worse?

The Myth of Nuvo Quo

The older I get, the better I was.

A legend in his own mind.

Five miles to school, uphill both ways.

Memory is selective. From time to time, story to story, we remember the parts that support our chosen message.

Nuvo quo is when we selectively improve what we remember of the old status quo.

Nuvo quo can keep you warm in the glow of past accomplishments, but shouldn’t be used to hold off the future.

I like libraries, places of inventory and quiet. Reference librarians were always faking. They projected a deep knowledge of everything, By second year of high school, I was ahead of them in many areas. I figured I should always ask first, just in case, and then dive into the research. That’s where I learned that with any technology, you have to navigate for your own best results.

For all practical purposes, Google has obliterated the need for reference librarians, except the ones who know something important and don’t choose to write it down. A protective perversion of knowledge. Google has won.

I attended Wikimania 2012, the global convention of Wikipedians this summer. Wikipedia has won as the primary source of knowledge research except among the academicians who have already been largely replaced by Wikipedia. They are fighting a valiant rearguard action and wasting everyone else’s time.

Shrieking (shrinking?) mass media is trumpeting that new medicine will not be like old medicine. Well, no kidding and thank goodness. New technologies might free us from ignorant, overworked physicians, well meaning but perpetually fogged technicians, oversized medical facilities that can never deliver cost effective healthcare and maximize unforeseen problems to threaten patients on a terrifying scale.

Based on previous experience, we can predict the first versions of new technology won’t necessarily outperform existing, and also predict that in an unregulated marketplace, new technologies will cost less, give better results, and be available to many more users in a short period of time.

We need the new technologies, and with any technology, we have to navigate for our own best results.

Oh Lord, if there’s gonna be a change, let it begin with some other guy!

New Opportunities

Seth Godin has a new post with a novel idea, “The Forever Recession”  that there is a cyclical recession that is ending, and a recession that is the end of the industrial age. This answers, “Why don’t I feel the recovery?”

Last week I realized we are seeing two groups of prospects.

Companies that want more sales. Maybe they can be helped.

A more interesting group are the companies overwhelmed by new business, who are asking for better ways to deploy their resources.

Both are out there in plenty. I choose the second. It’s like dating rich women. More good things can happen.

Which group are you designing your business to serve? Comment here!

Talk Your Business coming October 4th at 40 Plus!  www.SalesLabDC.com/leadership.