Linchpin_ Are You Indispensable_ - Seth Godin [87]
Of course, if the store charges more than the competition, you'll switch and buy from
someone cheaper. As the boss, that's how you maximize what you get for your money.
And the store? If they can find a customer willing to pay more for their product, they'll go
ahead and sell it to someone else.
So, what's missing?
The gift.
If you give your boss the gift of art, insight, initiative, or connection, she's less likely to
shop around every day looking to replace the commodity work you do, because the work
you do isn't a commodity.
If the store you visit gives you the unmeasurable and unrequired gift of pleasant service,
connection, respect, and joy, then you're a lot less likely to switch to the big-box store
down the street to save a few dollars. You enjoy the gift, it means something to you, and
you'd like to keep receiving it.
The missing arrow is the gift. The gift represents effort. Effort is separate from money,
separate from the job description, separate from capitalism itself. Creating a career where
you are seen as the indispensable linchpin may at first seem to be a selfish goal on your
part, but you will achieve this goal by giving selfless gifts, and those benefit everyone.
More Cowbell
A concert isn't merely about the music, is it? And a restaurant isn't about the food. It's
about joy and connection and excitement.
The funny thing is that learning how to add joy, create art, or contribute humanity is a lot
easier than learning how to play the guitar. For some reason, we work on the technique
before we worry about adding the joy.
If you're going to go to all the trouble of learning the song and performing it, then SING
IT. Sing it loud and with feeling and like you mean it. Deliver it, don't just hand it over
like a bank teller. When you answer the phone or greet me at your office or come to a
meeting or write something, don't bother if all you're going to do is do it. Sing it or stay
home.
If you get a chance, Google "More Cowbell" and you'll find what is certainly the most
relevant Saturday Night Live skit of all time. There's a lonely cowbell player in Blue
Oyster Cult, and every time he plays the cowbell, he feels horrible. He's standing out in a
band that wants him to fit in. It takes a brilliant record producer to persuade him that if
you're going to play the cowbell, play the cowbell.
Blogger Brian Clark explains that adding more cowbell is pretty much your only choice.
Either that, or have no cowbell at all.
Return on Machines
Investors know what to look for: return on investment. For every dollar invested, they
want to calculate how much money they can expect in return.
Most organizations focus on return on machines. I don't mean only big, noisy, industrial
machines. I am talking about the infrastructure of the organization. They have a system, a
factory, a set of desks or buildings or computers or Web sites, and the goal is to extract
maximum value from the machines they've got.
The sales force exists to keep the machines busy. The IT department services the
machines. The human resources department makes sure that the people staffing the
machines (they are part of it, after all) are obedient, reliable, and cheap.
We see the machine in its goriest glory when we look at the meat processing industry.
Workers are regularly abused, injured, and lied to. Cattle are pushed to be killed faster
and with less waste. The goal is to improve the efficiency of any part of the "machine"
and to decrease costs as much as possible. To do anything else means giving up profit at
the superstore.
The slaughterhouse may not have many viable choices. The system these people work in
has forced them to be the commodity processor of a commodity product.
But you don't have to work in a slaughterhouse.
Learning the Tools
I'm always amazed when I meet a writer who can't use a computer, or a lawyer who's
uncomfortable with LexisNexis, or an executive who needs a corporate IT person