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rule than it is to hire people with good judgment. The rule is, "When in doubt, give a

refund."

Multiply this by millions of jobs at millions of organizations and you see what you end

up with: systems everywhere, manuals, rules, and a few people at the top working hard to

dream up new ones.

When machines came along, we replicated this process. Teach that robot arm how to

spray paint, and have it follow specific rules. Et cetera.

Then something fascinating happened. Kevin Kelly first wrote about this ten years ago: it

turns out that GM saves $1.5 million a year by letting the robot arms think for

themselves! The more GM enables the swarm of dumb machines to make decisions, bid

against each other, network, and interact, the better they work.

The world works too fast for centralized control. These systems can't be run by a

supervisor at the top of the organizational chart.

Bullet trains in Japan run fast and on schedule without a centralized switchboard. It turns

out that pushing decision making down the chart is faster and more efficient.

So now, having learned from machines, organizations are applying the same logic to

people. Letting people in the organization use their best judgment turns out to be faster

and cheaper--but only if you hire the right people and reward them for having the right

attitude. Which is the attitude of a linchpin.

The Boss's Lie

"What I want is someone who will do exactly what I tell them to."

"What I want is someone who works cheap."

"What I want is someone who shows up on time and doesn't give me a hard time."

So, if this is what the boss really wants, how come the stars in the company don't follow

these three rules? How come the people who get promoted and get privileges and expense

accounts and are then wooed away to join other companies and get written up in the

paper and have servants and coffee boys . . . how come those guys aren't the ones who do

this stuff?

What the boss really wants is an artist, someone who changes everything, someone who

makes dreams come true. What the boss really wants is someone who can see the reality

of today and describe a better tomorrow. What the boss really wants is a linchpin.

If he can't have that, he'll settle for a cheap drone.

INDOCTRINATION: HOW WE GOT HERE

Mediocre Obedience

We've been taught to be a replaceable cog in a giant machine.

We've been taught to consume as a shortcut to happiness.

We've been taught not to care about our job or our customers.

And we've been taught to fit in.

None of these things helps you get what you deserve.

We've bought into a model that taught us to embrace the system, to spend for pleasure,

and to separate ourselves from our work. We've been taught that this approach works, but

it doesn't (not anymore). And this disconnect keeps us from succeeding, cripples the

growth of our society, and makes us really stressed.

It seems "natural" to live the life so many of us live, but in fact, it's quite recent and

totally manmade. We exist in a corporate manufacturing mindset, one so complete that

anyone off the grid seems like an oddity. In the last few years, though, it's becoming clear

that people who reject the worst of the current system are actually more likely to succeed.

Evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould wrote, "Violence, sexism, and general

nastiness are biological since they represent one subset of a possible range of behaviors.

But peacefulness, equality and kindness are just as biological--and we may see their

influence increase if we can create social structures that permit them to flourish."

To his thoughts I'd add that mediocre obedience is certainly something we're capable of,

but if we take initiative and add a little bravery, artistic leadership is something that's

equally (or more) possible and productive. We've been trained to believe that mediocre

obedience is a genetic fact for most of the population, but it's interesting to note that this