This is a trailer for Waiting for Superman. It’s a feature film about the failing education system in the United States of America. Interesting how it’s portrayed in a way that builds some suspense, rather than communicate a possible resolution. It also ties in nicely to Lynchpin by Seth Godin with one line in particular striking a chord – “I wanna be good at school.”

In the latest of Seth Godin’s books, Linchpin, he attempts to explain a new view on the world of work involving emotional labour, giving gifts, creating art and drawing maps. And it’s extremely interesting and thought prevoking!

Since reading Tribes by Seth Godin last year, I bought Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? as soon as it became available. After getting into motorcycling over the summer, with my Honda CB600F, the train journey to read books was no longer there. So recently, as the leaves have started to fall, I have had more time to finish off those books I meant to!

Seth Godin is very good at changing the way you think. Sometimes it takes a whole book and sometimes it can be done in a blog post. Linchpin is about the changing world of work, how you can make yourself indispensable, and drive your career and create a remarkable future. Although this message could have been communicated in one or two blog posts, it takes the whole book to make sense of it and drive the message home.

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? How to Drive Your Career and Create a Remarkable Future explains the changing world of work. How we have reached the limit of manufacturing and production line optimisation. Things can no longer be made quicker, cheaper and faster. This means that there is an opportunity to make things better, with a higher quality and more value.

We’re also moving away from the factory style management vs. worker structure and mentality. Companies aren’t as structured as they once were, and there is more knowledge and opportunity available to anyone wherever they are in the company. As opposed to only the management knowing what they know, everyone now has access to the same knowledge and information to make decisions possible.

So, this takes us into Seth’s new world of work. Where the way to be noticed, make important changes, learn more and prove your advantage to your employer is effectively to fight the cheaper, faster, less=more way of working. This brings us to becoming an artist, giving gifts, creating your own direction, and partly ignoring the rules which have been set out by the world before us.

Step away from fitting in, it’s about standing out. Stop following orders, find your own way through the mess. Take control of what you do through informed choices, giving more than just time in return for money.

There are a number of key ideas which are set up well and communicated excellently, in the typical Seth Godin way. Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? How to Drive Your Career and Create a Remarkable Future is an excellent way to kick start a new way of thinking, help you realise and think about how you work and how much you give to other people through your work. I would definitely recommend reading Linchpin, and find out more about the changing world.

There is also an excellent bibliography in the back of the book which is all to tempting to wade through and purchase.

I’ve been a fan of Seth Godin’s blog for some time now, and it’s on my daily, if not weekly, reading list. After reading little snippets here and there I wanted to sink my brain into some more volumous text along his lines of thinking. General out of the box, lateral thinking. He’s not always spot on the mark but he definitely helps open up the mind to possibilities beyond the obvious. So I ordered his latest book, Tribes.

I found this book a very interesting and motivating read. Seth looks into how Tribes are formed, how they grow and what inspires people to start tribes. It’s full of real world examples which show just how possible it is to start and to lead a tribe. The key it seems is having an idea and a belief. Believe in something and give it 100% and you get 100% back from it.

The book not only looks at tribes but also what it takes to lead a tribe, and importantly what the difference between leadership and management is.

The book isn’t like a regular book. Seth’s disgarded the contents page and just jumps straight into the text. The book isn’t in chapters or any sort of chunky divided content areas. It’s nice and small, and short… but not too short. It’s almost like a series of long blog posts on the subject, a method of writing which Seth is very good at. Perfect to read for five minutes here and there or even all in one go.

I’d like to thank him for writing the book and also recommend anyone interested in innovative leading, marketing, out of the box thinking or just general leadership having a read. An excellent read.