TEDxSMU Tuesday 4.12.11
Seth Godin
Poke the Box, by Seth Godin, 2011
Our economy is not static, but we act as if it is. Your position in the world is defined by what you instigate, how you provoke, and what you learn from the events you cause. In a world filled with change, that’s what matters — your ability to create and learn from change. Poke the Box is a manifesto about producing something that’s scarce, and thus valuable. It demands that you stop waiting for a road map and start drawing one instead. You know how to do this, you’ve done it before, but along the way, someone talked you out of it.
Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin, 2010
Linchpins are the essential building blocks of great organizations. Like the small piece of hardware that keeps a wheel from falling off its axle, they may not be famous but they’re indispensable. And in today’s world, they get the best jobs and the most freedom. Have you ever found a shortcut that others missed? Seen a new way to resolve a conflict? Made a connection with someone others couldn’t reach? Even once? Then you have what it takes to become indispensable, by overcoming the resistance that holds people back.
Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable, by Seth Godin, 2009
In Purple Cow, Seth Godin urges you to put a Purple Cow into everything you build, and everything you do, to create something truly noticeable. It’s a manifesto for marketers who want to help create products that are worth marketing in the first place.
Tribes : We Need You to Lead Us, by Seth Godin, 2008
“A tribe is any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader, and an idea. For millions of years, humans have been seeking out tribes, be they religious, ethnic, economic, political, or even musical (think of the Deadheads). It’s our nature. Now the Internet has eliminated the barriers of geography, cost, and time. All those blogs and social networking sites are helping existing tribes get bigger. But more important, they’re enabling countless new tribes to be born—groups of ten or ten thousand or ten million who care about their iPhones, or a political campaign, or a new way to fight global warming. And so the key question: Who is going to lead us?”
Seth Godin’s website
Seth Godin’s blog
Leadership: Tribes, Storytelling, Social Capital
Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization, by Dave Logan, John King, Halee Fischer-Wright, 2008
“Every company, indeed every organization, is a tribe, or if it’s large enough, a network of tribes-groups of 20 to 150 people in which everyone knows everyone else, or at least knows of everyone else. Tribes are more powerful than teams, companies, or even CEOs, and yet their key leverage points have not been mapped-until now.”
Forms of Rhetoric: The Narrative Paradigm, Living Rhetorically in the Real World, July 2, 2009
“Communication theorist Walter Fisher created the Narrative Paradigm in direct contrast to the Rational World Paradigm. The Rational World Paradigm, rooted in the sciences, states that humans are essentially rational beings and goes on to explain the reasoning behind this assumption; the Narrative Paradigm presents the alternative humanistic view which takes a step further and states that humans are essentially storytellers.”
Social capital of twenty-first-century leaders, by Daniel Brass and David Krackhardt, Connectedness, February 1, 2006
“In contrast to human capital (traits and behaviors), social capital refers to relationships with other actors, and the accompanying access to information, resources, opportunities, and control. Because organizational leadership involves accomplishing work through others, it is critical that we assess the social capital of leaders.”
Related Talks
Seth Godin on standing out, TED 2003
In a world of too many options and too little time, our obvious choice is to just ignore the ordinary stuff. Marketing guru Seth Godin spells out why, when it comes to getting our attention, bad or bizarre ideas are more successful than boring ones.
Seth Godin: This is broken, Gel Conference 2006
Why are so many things broken? In a hilarious talk from the 2006 Gel conference, Seth Godin gives a tour of things poorly designed, the 7 reasons why they are that way, and how to fix them.
David Logan on tribal leadership, TEDxUSC 2009
At TEDxUSC, David Logan talks about the five kinds of tribes that humans naturally form — in schools, workplaces, even the driver’s license bureau. By understanding our shared tribal tendencies, we can help lead each other to become better individuals.
Derek Sivers: How to start a movement, TED 2010
With help from some surprising footage, Derek Sivers explains how movements really get started. (Hint: it takes two.)