dispatches from the new world of work

Tom Topic #1

It's all about tryin' stuff. It's all about experimentation. It's all about getting' on with getting' on. Which means it's all about ...

Markets. (Lots a folks tryin' lots of stuff.)
Decentralization. (Lots of folks tryin' lots of stuff.)
Freedom. (Detroit 1900, Silicon Valley 2000, America 1783-???, new China 1979-???, etc = Lots of folks tryin' lots of stuff.)

Hence one of my labors of love (= reading project) this summer is freedom per se. Amazingly (to me), the idea of liberty as we conjure it today is only a quarter millennium old. My tomes under current study:

Lynn Hunt, Inventing Human Rights: A History.
Michael Barone, Our First Revolution: The Remarkable British Upheaval That Inspired America's Founding Fathers.

Here's the way I see the life of individuals (top list), and organized entities (bottom list):

Go on offense.
Give everybody a shot.
Decentralize.
Try a bunch of stuff.
Make it up as you go along.
Get some stuff wrong.
Laugh a lot.
Get some stuff right.
Become a "success."

Extract "lessons learned" or "best practices."
Thicken the Book of Rules.
Become evermore serious.
Enforce the rules to increasingly tight tolerances.
Go on defense.
Install walls.
Protect-at-all-costs today's franchise.
Centralize.
Calcify.
Install taller walls.
Write more rules.
Become irrelevant and-or die.

This master process is my life's work. And my personal joy. (And horror.)

Happy summer.
Try some stuff.

Remember Eleanor Roosevelt:

"Do one thing every day that scares you."

(Ciao, I'm heading out to the woods for my daily dose of brushcutting—a "widow maker" branch broke loose on me yesterday, which I suppose passes the E Roosevelt "scare-the-shit-out-of-myself" test.)

Tom Peters posted this on 06/26/07.

Comments

What is the balance between innovation and process? It seems that to deliver a consistent high-quality experience a company would need some level of process to make sure that the vision is carried on to the up and comers.

Posted by todd at June 27, 2007 9:25 AM

Todd - I wrote an article a while ago called 'Passion with a Side Salad of Process' which explores your question a bit. You can see the article at this link http://www.iwrite4u.co.uk/page.php?domain_name=iwrite4u.co.uk&viewpage=passion%2Fprocess

Would value your comments.

Posted by Trevor Gay at June 27, 2007 3:20 PM

Tom

On the subject of freedom, might I recommend 'The World Turned Upside Down', a journey through the radical religious ideas that sprang up during the civil war period in England.

Ultimately, the repression of these ideas following the restoration of the monarchy gave rise to America, the place where paradise lost might be regained.

It's astonishing to take in the breadth and scope of these ideas that bubbled to the surface only because of the window of opportunity created by the war.

What ideas are bubbling in the brains of today's cubicle serfs? The CEO is, after all, the last absolute (and in some cases even hereditary) monarch in the western world.

Posted by Phil at June 28, 2007 5:13 AM

Tom,

This is an excellent analysis of the two competing ideologies within contemporary Christianity: the institutional-Christendom model and the organic-missional model.

Thanks,

Rod

Posted by Rod at June 28, 2007 9:32 AM

Tom,

This is a really brilliant post. The best I have read written by you. And I have read most of the stuff you have written.
Thanks.

Rgds,
Jay

Posted by Jay at June 29, 2007 9:51 AM