John Hagel and John Seely Brown have come out with yet another in their blockbuster best seller series on innovation, that I found quite enlightening. The book (with 3rd author Lang Davison) is titled The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion. The text is one of this here is how to safe the world and revolutionize your business genre, that I don’t usually find has much value beyond hyperbole. But I liked this book.
The Power of Pull is the capacity for new social and networking technologies to provide the engines by which whole industries, social movements or governments can envision and implement radically different ways of caring out their business or mission. Given the need for change on many fronts (think climate change, end of oil, access to quality postsecondary education etc. etc.) there is certainly opportunity and need for many ‘game-changing’ activities. Pull (as opposed to push products, ideas, or ideologies) is the capacity to find and access people, attract relevant people and resources and pull from ourselves and these aggregations radically improved solutions to existing challenges. It all sounds very Utopian, right up there with How to Win Friends and Influence People. But the difference between Norman Vincent Peel, and Hagel and Seely is that these guys have the Net and understand its potential to empower change.Read More