I think books are specific things. Simply writing a doc, creating a pdf, putting it on your web site and calling it an ebook is not right. I am producing a few such collections right now and they are definitely not ebooks!
People First has been a winding journey for the last four years. Most recently, I find it has been coming together in my mind very clearly and with that clarity I have been encouraged to talk about what is going on in a more open manner. The interesting thing is that as I have become more open about what I am doing, more questions are being asked.
A year ago, asking someone to sign up for the newsletter resulted in them either signing up for the newsletter – or not. No questions. No debate.
Today, I still have the newsletter , added a podcast, the book is coming out shortly and now we are beginning to create community – the questions are beginning to flow.
I still don’t understand. What is the mission/goal of the group(s)?
a newsletter reader
and
What would you say, in three or so sentences, is the hard objective of People First? Not the vague, all singing all dancing “unleashing human potential” nor the activity based “bringing like minds together” etc. What are you (and other participants) trying to tangibly accomplish? This isn’t rhetorical. I am just trying to understand what will change/improve at the coal face as a result of your combined efforts.
a newsletter reader
This post is not to answer the questions … yet. I touched on it in this weeks newsletter – and was specific about that, but here’s the good news. One takeaway for the recurring question is that people are sitting up, listening, they are interested … which from where I sit is all good news.
As one reader wrote …
I believe you are on the verge of an overnight success!!!
I am writing this post, which is extracted from an email I had cause to write this week when someone questioned a stance I had taken in a newsletter that Pink Floyd was a punk band.
I know – right?
To quote the writer …
“And Pink Floyd a punk band, WTF!!???)”
an email correspondent
I often take a contrary stance on things to elicit a response. But when I take that stance, it isn’t uninformed, just different. So ‘Pink Floyd is a punk band’ had the desired effect, it elicited response – but no logical argument back, just a preconceived notion that they are a rock/progressive band – which cant possibly be punk. Me – I still say YES. I mean if Malcolm McLaren can produce an album that fuses opera and R&B has he lost his punk? Rigid classification just doesn’t work – I think that also goes some way to explaining how databases have transitioned over time from hierarchical to relational to graph. But back to Punk Floyd.
A Collection of Links you might enjoy – if not – read on
The point of it all being that if Punk is only about the music / style / genre … then no, Pink Floyd is not a Punk Band
BUT
If Punk is all about anti-establishment commentary and political action – then absolutely yes, they are … and Roger Waters specifically is the original punk.
The desire of the article and a lot of what I write is to take a non obvious stance to make people sit up and either respond “right, I never thought about it that way” or “the guys talking crap” … and I look forward to that debate … always seeking to learn.
Fits nicely into something I read recently from Union Square Ventures …. Trust is offence (trust gaps create opportunities for startups) as well as defence (trust is a moat).
I often talk about vocabulary and language …. here’s another one … because if you list all the skills that people are highlighting as important in the future – it’s close identical to the soft skill list.
My advice … get into that cuddly warm blanket and embrace those soft skills — you can always learn the other skills as and when you need them … despite the name … they’re not that hard.
The New York Times : Yellow or Blue? In Hong Kong, Businesses Choose Political Sides on the 19th January contains this quote …
Families and businesses have cleaved, sometimes forcefully, between those who believe Beijing must be compelled to carry out promised reforms and those who worry that the democracy crusade is destroying Hong Kong’s reputation as a stable financial capital.
I thought of the UK and the US … and made two modifications
For The USA
Families and businesses have cleaved, sometimes forcefully, between those who believe Washington must be compelled to carry out promised reforms and those who worry that the democracy crusade is destroying The USA’s reputation as a stable financial capital.
For The UK
Families and businesses have cleaved, sometimes forcefully, between those who believe London must be compelled to carry out promised reforms and those who worry that the democracy crusade is destroying The UK‘s reputation as a stable financial capital.
I discovered the three words process only last year from Chris Brogan. It worked nicely for 2019, so I repeated the exercise for 2020. Since publishing the three words in my annual new year newsletter, a number of people have asked questions;
where did the idea come from?
what are the rules?
can you tell me more about the process?
is it ok to have four words?
etc etc
So first – not my idea. I got it from Chris Brogan – but I don’t think he started it. To fill in some gaps – this is what Chris has to say.
