The Power of Pull

How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion

By: John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, Lang Davison

Narrated by: Dennis Holland

Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

In a radical break with the past, information now flows like water, and we must learn how to tap into its stream. Individuals and companies can no longer rely on the stocks of knowledge that they've carefully built up and stored away. But many of us remain stuck in old practices, practices that could undermine us as we search for success and meaning.

In this revolutionary book, three doyens of the Internet age, whose path-breaking work has made headlines around the world, reveal the adjustments we must make if we are to take these changes seriously.

In a world of increasing risk and opportunity, we must understand the importance of pull. Understood and used properly, the power of pull can draw out the best in people and institutions by connecting them in ways that increase understanding and effectiveness. Pull can turn uncertainty into opportunity and enable small moves to achieve outsized impact. Drawing on pioneering research, The Power of Pull tells us how to apply its principles to unlock the hidden potential of individuals and organizations, and how to use it as a force for social change and the development of creative talent.

The authors explore how to use the power of pull to:

• Access new sources of information
• Attract likeminded individuals from around the world
• Shape serendipity to increase the likelihood of positive chance encounters
• Form creation spaces to drive you and your colleagues to new heights
• Transform your organization to adapt to the flow of knowledge

The Power of Pull is essential listening for entrepreneurs, managers, and anybody interested in understanding and harnessing the shifting forces of our networked world.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2010 John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, and Lang Davison (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“ The Power of Pull examines the “how question”—how can we effectively address our most pressing challenges in a rapidly changing and increasingly interdependent world? In The Power of Pull, John Hagel, John Seely Brown, and Lang Davison highlight fascinating new ways in which passionate thinking, creative solutions, and committed action can—and will—make it possible for us to seize opportunities and remain in step with change.” (Bill Clinton)

“ The Power of Pull will do for our 21st-century information-age institutional leadership what Peter Drucker’s The Concept of the Corporation did for industrial-era management. This book begins to create a body of learnable principles that will revolutionize our ability to access and work with knowledge flows.” (Newt Gingrich)

Boring as Hell

Taking a bunch of existing ideas and aggregating them under a new term 'Pull' is lame. I wasted a lot of time hoping some modicum of new knowledge would be heard. Unfortunately it never was.

Dennis Holland is a good cure for insomnia

I got about 5 hours into this book and Holland's narration helped me take an afternoon nap. I can't totally blame him because the subject matter isn't exactly spicy.

The concept of "pull" is a very good idea. The author is really hitting on some valid points about social networking...but way too much detail/expounding.

Snoozer.

Only Half the Product

The book repeatedly refers to illustrations that they claim should be available in .pdf form "where you downloaded this book." Those illustrations are still not available from Audible, which means you are not getting the complete book.

Concept Fabulous; Execution Mindnumbing

There is a lot of fantastic information in this book, if you can manage to stay focused to find it. What happens when you get three eggheads together in one book is often too much expounding and not enough editing. The powerful resumes of the three authors tell you they know what they are talking about. I only wish they would have not felt the need to prove it in such verbose fashion. The editing would have helped dispel the notion that the authors hold an "elitist" view of the world much more convincingly than the repetitive denials that they instead chose to leave in the text, IMHO. Dost thou protest too much? My advice: Listen in intervals, and whittle it down to the nuggets of wisdom by jotting your own notes, leaving out any mention of surfing or "dragging a backside hand". (That alone would have knocked off two hours from this book, I think.

The power of platforms for collaborative effort

As I recall this was a interesting book about how open platforms allowing and encouraging collaborative effort, can reap mutual rewards for all participants.

The book begins by pointing out that surfers (i.e. surf board, water, etc.) are able to fast-track improvements in the tricks and techniques by forming communities of collaborative effort. At first these communities were centered around physical locations, and also there is now the internet were they can form virtual communities sharing videos of tricks and info.

Workers are looking for meaning in their work and are moving away from working for big corporations who offer financial reward, but who sack workers according to corporate whims. They are looking for meaning and a cause, and they are finding there is fulfillment to be had within the realm of the virtual communities/platforms with the internet being the technical medium par-excellence for enabling such communities/platforms.

The book brings to mind Malcolm Gladwell's book "The Tipping Point" were its discusses key types of people who may be classified as community "connectors".

It is interesting to note that the "The Female Brain" (by Louann Brizendine) has been found to be geared to community "connection". Although, neither "The Power of Pull" or "The Tipping Point" seem to point out more female "connector" examples male.

Mediocre

Just just finished listening to "PULL" and quite honestly it was a very difficult listen. Most of the material is far from anything new - it's a lot of words for a very few points. I assumed it would be on par with Gladwell (Blink, etc) and it's not even remotely close.
For someone who has never read anything on business or marketing it might be enlightening, but other books in the same genre would probably be of more benefit.
I seldom write reviews, but I was very disappointed.

The PDF mentioned during the text is available.

I was amazed to see that the PDF was unavailable repeated again and again in the reviews. If you look at the publisher's summary for the book on Audible. It contains a link to download the accompanying reference guide.
It has been quite a while since I listened to the book, but I just wanted to point out that the reference guide IS available.

New Job Markets

Traditional jobs are disappearing and any concept of being able to remain with any employer for any length of time is a concept which ended when the industrial revolution ended. This book doesn't use social networking as its main element as its plan for success (those who think differently should have finished the book). Being able to idenitfy, communicate with and pull from various sources and resouces is a powerful tool. Being able to return valuable knowledge, goods, services and resouces quickly is key to any successful venture. Good book, not for the casual listener looking for a "Book for Dummys" with quick and easy answers, but for people with imagination, looking for fresh and thought provoking concepts.

Where's the download?

Hey, Audible! The authors say in the introduction that there is a companion pdf download showing their diagrams and illustrations available "where you downloaded this audiobook" -- but as of this writing on 19 May 2010, I don't see one anywhere. Please post it.

Pushing Back on 'The Power of Pull'

I read The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion for one reason: "John Seely Brown." If JSB writes something, I'm buying. If JSB gives a talk, I'm there (at least virtually). If JSB says to "jump", I'm saying "how far." You get the picture.

The Power of Pull is one of those books that I'm happy I read but did not enjoy reading all that much. What is most instructive about The Power of Pull is that the book demonstrates how good ideas and clear thinking are necessary but not sufficient to engage us readers.

What is missing from the book is precisely why I bought the book, the authors. The great ideas are filtered through a sort of omnipresent consultant speak, homo consultilis, instead of through the voice of any recognizable homo sapien. I know for a fact that the all 3 authors lead fascinating lives, but one would never know it from reading Pull.

Educators need to keep this lesson in mind. When we teach, we need to connect our disciplines to stories, and our stories to our students and ourselves. Dan Ariely does this masterfully in his latest book, The Upside of Irrationality, telling the story of his recovery from a horrific accident to help us understand the science of behavioral economics.

It is shame that the Pull authors allowed themselves to slip into consultant speak, as the ideas and lessons from Pull are worth pondering. The big argument of Pull is that a combination of globalization and digital technologies has fundamentally changed the rules of economics and employment, a big shift in which companies and institutions must draw ideas and people from the "edge" and leverage their talents to change the practices of the "core." People who will succeed in the uncertainty and turmoil of the digital economy will be those who can authentically follow their passions, connect with other passionate individuals, and re-skill themselves to compete and add-value in a globalized economy.

Companies can no longer either create or forecast demand (push), but rather must offer a compelling product or service that "pulls" potential employees, partners, and customers in to mutually beneficial relationships.

I particularly like what Pull has to say about education:

"It's quickly dawning on us instead that our education was at best a thin foundation that needs to be continually refreshed in order for us to stay competitive". (page 12)

"Until relatively recently, most of us believed we had to invest considerable time and effort early in our lives navigation an educational system designed to transfer stocks of knowledge to us. As a reward for our diligence and persistence in school, we believed, these stocks of knowledge would serve us well throughout our lives". (page 52)

"We have to be willing to risk looking like we don't know the answer, or maybe the question. We've got to wean ourselves from the over dependence on expertise we've labored so hard to accumulate. To paraphrase Albert Einstein, we must avoid letting our education interfere with our learning". (page 117).

Good stuff. But I can't find much that is really all the new. A much better book about our economic and job future in a globalized and digital economy is Sonic Boom, by Gregg Easterbrook. Seth Godin has written extensively about finding our tribes and passions at work.

Dan Pink's new book, Drive, is all about how intrinsic motivators always trump extrinsic ones in determining performance at work. Matt Ridley, in The Rational Optimist, explains how a globalized world organized around trade and open markets will mean greater prosperity for all of us. (You should really check out Ridley's TED Talk - "When Ideas Have Sex." And The New American Workplace provides in-depth case studies of companies that are able remain competitive through a results only workplace environment (ROWE) that allows creative people on the edge to be nurtured and thrive.

JSB - I hope your next book includes more of JSB.