The Importance of Measurement

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As we've added stopwatches to so many things we do, we have been measuring the things that are easy to measure. If you're a lazy basketball scout, hiring just tall players is probably a decent hack. Hiring 35 year old white men is not a useful proxy for whether they're good at their job. Even in our personal lives, if you are measuring clicks and links and friends and likes, well, those people aren't really your friends and they don't really like you. You're using a proxy that was served up to you by Mark Zuckerberg to make him money, not to make you happy.

This week I was honored and privileged to speak with Seth Godin about his new book, The Song of Significance: A New Manifesto for Teams. For most listeners Seth needs no introduction. Seth is perhaps best known for his prolific daily blog, as well as his books Linchpin, Tribes, The Dip and Purple Cow. I’ve been looking forward to this conversation for a long time now, and Seth of course did not disappoint. In our chat we unpack the purpose and passion that led Seth to writing this latest book. For anyone familiar with his book Linchpin, The Song of Significance is in many ways the spiritual sequel and companion piece to that book. If Linchpin was all about being indispensable on an individual level, The Song of Significance is about how to work together as a team of Linchpins.

This was a really encouraging chat for anyone who might be feeling anxiety about how their skills or unique voice fits into the modern workforce or for anyone considering taking their skills into a freelance or entrepreneurial journey. Seth and I explore how the desire for agency and dignity lie at the core of the modern employee’s desires and how for all of the innovations and progress that have occurred since The Industrial Revolution these two key components have been lost.

The purpose of this new book is to help teams and individuals find this dignity and autonomy again to remind people of their unique voice and how no amount of technology, AI, or automation can replace the song that only they know how to sing. This is truly a book to be read as a team and then have discussions to plan action steps that come out of it, coming together to build a team, organization or business that empowers and trusts everyone to deliver their best work and harmonize together.

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