Proceed Until Apprehended

I recommend you watch The Matrix again. I just watched it for the first time in years, and I CAN’T BELIEVE how simply and accurately The Matrix serves as a metaphor for the world we live in, the conventions we ascribe to and the blissful ignorance we live with each day… except for when it’s not blissful. If it wasn’t for the Hollywood-style violence, I’d say this movie is as important to school curriculum as the classics of English class. It probably is anyway.

I went and found a good description of the metaphor between the Matrix and our life. As the article suggests, The Matrix offers us the ability to examine our world with exceptional clarity.

This got me thinking, though. I saw all of this ten years ago. I think I “got it” then. At that time, why did I go back to my job on Monday and keep working in my own Matrix? Or, the real mind-bender, how different is it this time?

Before Neo becomes Neo, he’s Thomas Anderson. Don’t you think Thomas Anderson got to go to a movie on a Friday night and watch something like The Matrix? Did he step out into the cool evening air and realize he was inside an artificial construct? Apparently not. The human mind doesn’t seem to have that kind of sudden-insight capacity. It wasn’t until he took a red pill from Morpheus and physically got some distance that he understood the limitations of what he was thinking and seeing.

So, as I see this movie for the second time, I think I have some physical distance from my artificial construct, and I’m trying to get more. The first time I saw this movie, it was sort of a description of what was going on, while I was in it. I was like an early Neo, hearing the whisper of “Matrix” in the corners of a dark room. There was a more fulsome theory of what was real and what was artificial that needed to be poked and prodded, but I couldn’t see it. As Morpheus says, “Unfortunatley, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.”

Fast forward ten years, I’ve made some pretty significant leaps outside the conventional lines of my Matrix. I’ve chosen in places not to follow the rules of social expectation. I’ve shed some of the consumer/recipient role. I’m no longer a dispassionate observer saying, “wow, what if that were real?” I’m a participant, receiving motivation and inspiration that I’m not alone in believing our current world isn’t the way it’s supposed to be, or has to be.

If my quasi-rambling post isn’t making sense, let me put something on the record. I don’t think machines are putting artificial constructs in my mind. I think the systems and conventions we’ve built up over generations are.

The movie also reminds me that I chose the red pill. I have an obligation to do something with what I’ve seen and learned.

Morpheus: “Neo, sooner or later you’re going to realize, just as I did, that there’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.”

I just listened to Seth Godin speaking with Nora Young on the CBC radio program Spark.

Best. Interview. Ever.

I think what happened is Seth dialed down his usual brilliance for his audience, just a little bit. I’ve never heard him so accessible. He used language that explains a new internet economy to people that haven’t really gotten the bug. He also demonstrated a focus I haven’t heard from him, one that’s about bridging the growing divide between people and organizations that are running away with the new economy and people and organizations that aren’t even participating.

My favourite bits from Seth:

“…I’m seeing more and more is this growing divide. And the people who are on the losing side don’t understand what happened. It’s one thing to play a game and lose. It’s another thing to lose without realizing that you’re playing a game. And I want to call that out…”

“we were brainwashed through 10 or 20 years of school to do what we’re told, to fit in instead of stand out, to have a resume that looks like everybody else’s resume, to get a job like everybody else’s job, and to put in our time and then we’ll get rewarded. And the sad truth is, the reward isn’t coming.”

“… people who work with ideas and with people, also have the ability to do something scarce, if we choose to. But a lot of us got lazy and said, “OK, we’ll take the high pay, we’ll take the nice working conditions, but no, I don’t want to put myself on the line.” And for a long time there was enough productivity out there that we could pull that off.

But now that’s going away, and so when the boss is trimming the number of people who work there, or when they’re deciding who to hire, guess who gets to keep the job? It’s the person who did the hard work, which was scarce, not the person who merely followed the manual, which wasn’t.”

“It turns out that the knee jerk answer, which is, “My boss needs to fix this,” isn’t going to happen. Because the minute you say, “I want to do something creative but my boss won’t let me,” what you’re really saying is, “I want my boss to take responsibility if I fail, but I want to get the credit if I succeed.”

Do you think there’s a business model that allows me to post Seth Godin quotes all day?

By the way, he’s on the circuit promoting a new, free e-book that you should check out, What Matters Now.

This has been a year of tremendous personal growth for me.  A real highlight was my discovery that I had things I wanted to say and a desire to be a part of a conversation about what’s next. Not just part of the conversation, actually, but I realized I wanted to be a participant in making the future.

This may not seem like much, especially with the ubiquity of blogging and other social media tools. Everybody has a voice and can use it. I had to make my own personal journey to determine that I was going to step beyond “lurking.” To my great surprise, you and other readers have been willing to bless me with your attention, your insight and your passion.

Wow. Just wow.

I hope you enjoy the holiday season. I can’t wait to do more of this.

Hungry People gave me an early Christmas gift. They interviewed me and put it up for their audience to see. It’s kinda neat, getting a little attention. I’d much rather have a conversation with someone than just yell into the town square.

By the way, I see big things coming for Hungry People. They are creating conversations and content that’s worth reading. Chief Storytelling Officer Jay Jaboneta is proving that this game can be had with a plan and a work ethic.

A recent Bad Astronomy post helps put some perspective around a pretty fascinating Hubble telescope image.

It’s clear that we’re an infinitessimal speck in this universe. BA’s blogger Phil Plait points out that this zoom shot is a really narrow sliver of the night sky. There are 30 million more possible pictures like this one, and you can bet they’re  just as full of galaxies.

If pondering the size of the universe doesn’t do it for you, visit this Nick Vujicic video.

With a timely and more than adequate perspective smack, I now go back to my day.

Change. Let’s just take that as a given.

Your organization. Unless it was established in the past decade,  it was designed or incrementally built for a different era and a different notion of how companies are successful.

Now, the world is different. Creating value had different rules. To make an old organization relevant for today, you have to adapt.

In evolution, adaptation is done though trial and error. A long beak either helps you survive or slows you down. A different shape to your ear either helps you hear predators or it dulls their footsteps. Species have thousands of mutations and a few work. Ultimately, the adaptations that improve design are the ones that make it.

So, in our organization, why do we think it is going to be the vetted, approved-in-triplicate, endorsed-by-the-president idea that is going to change your organization? That’s the common expectation. Everyone keeps looking for the home run.

If nature offers any clues, we should likely be considering the “small ball” of little trials and errors. Trying a hundred small things gives us a lot more opportunity to find a winner and plenty of knew information, besides.

A culture of “small innovation” guarantees you’ll find some real, effective improvements. It just won’t happen like in the movies.

Even the most reticent among us now acknowledge that the way our economy works and the way a large majority of us produce value has changed significantly. If you’re not there yet, you should perhaps watch the latest version of Did You Know. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3rqW_n1Y8o&feature=youtube_gdata to get a sense of how this world is asking something different of you.

This fundamental shift clearly hasn’t been matched by a smooth adaptationd by our population. Personally, I’ve experienced a significant lag between my realization that the world had changed and the creation of strategies to feel like I’m actually engaged in the shift.

Here’s some rules I’ve now put in place. Perhaps they’ll be of assistance:

Make information work for you
Set up filters and categories in your email, through RSS and screen your phone calls. If you don’t manage the flow coming at you, it can be constant and very distracting.

Document your best ideas and share them
The name of the game is now reputation. People won’t seek you out for your knowledge like they used to and letters behind your name now mean less than they ever have. If you want people to have confidence that you have the smarts for the next problem, solve some existing ones without being asked.

Become a student… and a teacher
Along with increased availability of information is an accelerated pace of change. The approach I advocate is to institute a self-study course that makes you an eternal Master’s student. You can never be on top of it all, but to be relevant in the discussion, you have to be informed and carry an opinion. Teaching is a no-brainer. It’s how we learn. There’s also a huge audience as we all try and figure it out.

It’s DIY
In The Pirate’s Dilemma, Matt Mason references a punk magazine that showed the neck of a guitar and three possible chords. It said, “Here’s a chord. Here’s two more. Now go form you own band.” Go nuts. There are no restrictions. At little to no cost, you get to try what you want.

Embrace your new role
Most of all, beyond any advice I’m providing, I urge you to find a way to enjoy this environment. It’s not going away anytime soon. There are plenty of discoveries, perspectives and unconventional sources to keep things interesting, but they can also drive you nuts. Make sure you have the right frame of mind. It’s more of a pick-up game than league play. No-one is looking over everything with the right answer, not even Seth Godin.

There is no single source. YOU are a source. I’m a source. Isn’t this fun?

The last person to get knocked out of a poker tournament before they get to the cash payouts is called the “Bubble Boy.” Celebrating the arrival of the Bubble Boy is great fun for everyone but, you guessed it, the Bubble Boy.

I watched a World Series of Poker broadcast the other night when they were going to “break the bubble” and get into the cash. Poker celebrities were talking about the misery of being the Bubble Boy, their own experience with the bubble and their hopes for this year. They all took pity on the Bubble Boy, except Daniel Negreanu, a well-known Canadian player. Daniel celebrated the Bubble Boy as someone who took a risk when they were close to the reward. He said they could walk away and people should say, “there’s a guy who is going to be a great poker player.”

I think there’s two ways to have a career, and one of them looks a lot like the Bubble Boy. You can choose to be the methodical, incremental value creator or you can be the make-it-or-break-it person, the one that succeeds and fails a dozen times. The one that creates stories worth telling – about the times they hit and the times they missed.

Sometimes that person has to walk away from the table, but it doesn’t have to be in shame. Someone will be saying, “there’s a guy who is going to do great things.”

Now that I’ve been blogging for a while, I would say this is the question that haunts me the most. A lot of magnificent thinkers and writers are talking about the same sorts of things I am talking about.

I’ve just learned about www.caliandjody.com. They have a model is called ROWE, the Results Only Work Environment In my estimation, it’s brilliant. I downloaded the introduction and first chapter of their book, Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It, and the evisceration they give to our out-dated perspective on time is fantastic.

So what am I doing here blogging when other people are already saying it so well? Well, two things. First, I’m forcing myself to get my own thoughts into a coherent format and be responsible for them. It’s tremendously helpful, if not even a little cathartic. Second, I’m contributing my voice to a movement, one that needs every member the world can spare.

Your quiet agreement to some or all of what I say is great. Agreeing in a not so quiet manner, through voice or action, is powerful.

Oh, hang on. There’s a third reason. By blogging, I’m learning a ton. I’m not sure I would have come across ROWE without the generosity of a reader. Thanks Sebastian.