Linchpin_ Are You Indispensable_ - Seth Godin [75]
The intent of the giver and the posture of the recipient are critical. I'm not arguing that
you must fake your attitude and cop a new behavior in order to get ahead.
Working the first-class cabin at British Airways can be a nightmare job. Spoiled, tired
executives are waited on by flight attendants for hours on end, rarely earning the service
they demand. Sure, they paid for it, but all too often, they're not open or receptive to it.
The secret of working this flight, I've been told by the people who do the work, is to
realize that the extraordinary service being delivered is not for the passenger, and it's not
for British Airways. It's for the flight attendant.
The most successful givers aren't doing it because they're being told to. They do it
because doing it is fun. It gives them joy.
Sure, it would be better if they got paid a fair wage, and it would be a lot better if more
passengers appreciated their work. But until those two things happen, the most successful
and happiest flight attendants will be embracing their art, not looking for someone to
applaud them. If their airline started using hidden cameras and customer report forms to
push them to do it more, they'd actually do it less. Manipulated art (even the art of
service) ceases to be art.
Great bosses and world-class organizations hire motivated people, set high expectations,
and give their people room to become remarkable.
The Internet as a Gift System
I hesitate to use the phrase "gift economy" because as soon as I do, people wonder what
they're going to get and how much they'll have to pay for it.
Clay Shirky and Doug Rushkoff have both talked about the public gift nature of the 'Net.
Someone puts a video up on YouTube; why? No obvious revenue potential, no ad sales,
no clear path to fame. It's a gift.
At first, gifts you can give live in a tiny realm. You do something for yourself, or for a
friend or two. Soon, though, the circle of the gift gets bigger. The Internet gives you
leverage. A hundred people read your blog, or fifty subscribe to your podcast. There's no
economy here, but there is an audience, a chance to share your gift.
And that circle begets other circles. The audience you charmed with your video realizes
that they too can give a gift to the community. And so they do. And the audience
continues to grow, each person enjoying the digital fruits of the labor that others donate
to the ever-widening circle.
The fact that there's no organized cash or exchange system is part of what makes it work.
If I send you two links and then you feel obligated to send me two links, we don't have
art; we have an economy of reciprocity.
I don't write my blog to get anything from you in exchange. I write it because giving my
small gift to the community in the form of writing makes me feel good. I enjoy it that you
enjoy it. When that gift comes back to me, one day, in an unexpected way, I enjoy the
work I did twice as much.
Reciprocity defined as payment for my work isn't the point. It's the appreciation of my
work, the way it changes people--that's my payment.
The Internet has taken the idea of gifts, multiplied it, and then pushed it into a realm
where gifts previously hadn't had much traction. The gift system is now a bigger part of
commerce than it ever has been before.
Margaret Thatcher famously said, "There is no such thing as society." While this is
ridiculous on its face, the enlarging circle of gift culture demonstrates how false this
statement is in practice. Society is where we give gifts.
Someone in your office publishes a paper about a new technique, or gives a talk at a
conference for no pay. You go the extra mile to please a small customer, or build an
online forum to teach your customers how to get more out of your products (for no extra
cost). These are all examples of the gift system at work. It works even more profoundly
on an internal basis. Someone who is not in your department steps in and helps out