GovReads – Linchpin Review

Linchpin

So I read Seth Godin’g book Linchpin the other day. If you haven’t read it, you should. If you haven’t read his other books like “The Dip” or “Tribes”, you should.

Here’s my thoughts from the book

-Seth uses Linchpin almost like the word change agent. This is someone who is indenspinsable
as they are creative, passionate, and energetic trying to create and innovate.

-It’s not easy. Seth tells story after story of difficulties linchpins face. I totally agree. It’s easy to be ordinary – you follow the rules given to you, don’t push the box, and people generally like you. To be extraordinary ( a linchpin), it
can be painful – your great new idea will not resonate with everyone – it will
take time and a lot of work.

-Social intelligence. Linchpins have great social intelligence and know how tell a story, pitch their ideas, and navigate the political waters.yes””>

-Linchpins should not settle. Linchpins should not work in jobs that don’t require linchpins. To me, this makes
sense. Square peg in round
hole. Linchpins should work to
find bosses that appreciate their unique skill sets and roles that fit. This may not be easy or always
attainable but to me makes sense.

Personally I think of a number of government linchpins and a lot of the statements hold true.

Think of someone like Mary Davie radically pushing Acquisition 2.0 and how we can do acquisitions better. She is a change agent but that is messy. It takes time – the
Acquisition 2.0 group is now over 1 year old – and some days you move 3 steps
forward, and others 2 steps back.
But already we have seen a great event come out of the group, the Better
buy project dialogue, and now are running an acquisition in a new way.

Will Acquisitions across government change tomorrow? No. But it takes people like Mary pushing hard with new ideas for a few years and that change will spread.