Conversation Agent: The Power of Pull

Have you ever wanted something so much that you spent all your waking hours working towards it and your dreams uncovering new avenues to pursue it? I've always been very interested in achieving our potential as individuals and as businesses.

Up until quite recently, this was done mostly with organizations that could forecast needs and then design the most efficient systems to ensure that the right people and resources are available at the right time and place using carefully scripted and standardized processes. In other words, through push.

I don't know about you, I really dislike the term "resources" when talking about individuals.

In The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion, Deloitte Center for the Edge John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, and Lang Davidson introduce pull as far more than search or accessing media on demand. Pull can be a way to shape serendipity, and it can also bring us together in new ways to drive more rapid performance improvement.

The book's central premise is that institutions will be shaped to provide platforms to help individuals achieve their full potential by connecting with others and better address challenging performance needs. This is greatly possible thanks to the use of technology and digital media.

While many are talking about the future of social as communities and collaboration, Hagel, Seely Brown, and Davidson seem to take a different approach. The individual is in fact a key component of future breakthroughs.

The pull environment they describe is based on three principles:

Accessing the people and resources you need
Attracting people and resources to yourself that are relevant and valuable
Achieving your potential by attaining new levels of performance

The authors also provide us with pragmatic migration paths to aid us in getting from where we are today to where we need to be in a world of pull.

Connecting with personal passion helps you turn stress into success -- it actually puts you ahead of your competition. Organizations that don't provide a platform for talent development -- those that merely mine it -- will see that talent migrate to other places.

Institutions of all stripes have an opportunity to tap into, leverage, and magnify the individuals who work for them. Will the book help leaders better understand how impact can be expanded well beyond the resources deployed?

[Disclosure: I received a copy of The Power of Pull from John Hagel III. This review and recommendation is based upon the quality of the material -- and not on how I obtained it.]