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)

Understanding who this book is aimed at

This book is really about a shift in developmental stage of organizations arising out of the effect of the Internet on society and business. For many of us, we have been living in this age for over a decade, but for mainstream managers and management theory, it is still terra incognita.

I think this book does a good job of translating the shift into language that ordinary managers and business theorists can apprehend, and as such represents a seminal treatment and turning point.

I couldn't finish it

This book was one steady stream of buzzwords, over-generalizations, and repetition. Do not waste a credit on this. If you want you can get the best ideas in this book from Seth Godin's Tribes, which is a much better, more engaging book.

Do not waste a credit on this book

Narrator is terrible. He is good for reading novels for kids. Pdf forms they keep on referring to in the audio book are not available anywhere. The audio book is useless without those pdf forms. Ideas are not clear in the book and I am so sorry to waste my money on such a book.

Fluff n' Stuff

It is very rare that I stop listening to a book. I can only think of one other time. I couldn't get past the first 1.5 hours on this one. Where to start? The first sign that this was all fluff was the repeated use of 'passionate', 'paradigm' and 'potential'. Over and over again. Get passionate people ... If you don't follow 'Pull' your passionate people will leave. If you do follow Pull you will realize your potential. How many ways can we restate this? MANY? The second was that they force this Pull vs. Push metaphor on everything. Things that worked lately - those are Pull. Things that didn't work - those are Push. But it's forced. They back up their metaphor by demonstrating the real differences (e.g., Tipping Point sets up a hypothesis and then gives examples that you can go - oh yeah, I see. - here they just add lots of words.) The third sign is that they are just restating current trends - the power of social networks, the internet, the rapid pace of development and how knowledge is changing at a higher frequency. They talk about the new 'digital technology'! If you didn't know that already, then this is the book for you! They talk about 'their research has shown', well I don't know what that research was. Another big tip off - look at their charts in the book. It's the same graph, over and over and over. Nice vague words like "Trajectory", "Leverage", "Pace" and "Access", "Attract" and "Achieve" all brought about by "The Big Shift"! And then you have the 'Edge' and the 'Core'. Oooooh! Did I just spoil the book for you? Then they 'warn' you about how this 'Pull' world might be scary, threatening, and uncertain, but you must forge ahead because the old ways are Push and they are going to take you to ruin.
I don't know these authors. Maybe, if I waited for another hour or so, I would have been enlightened. But I just couldn't. It actually hurt me to listen. So, I guess 'Pull' is just going to roll over me.

A total waste of time

I kept waiting for the authors' ideas to become clear and they never did.
Go to conferences? Wow! what advice. I bet the authors give a lot of those.

Uninspiring

This book is a bit wordy and the narrator, who has a fabulous voice and is easy to listen to, seems more suited to non-fiction. For a non-fiction book, I want just-the-facts-maham and the storytelling voice of the author was a distraction. The topic is an important one and I was hoping for something more succinct, direct, and at a faster pace.

Pablum

Did you know that if you engage in "deep listening" regularly you could become a node? This is the last time I open a recomendation email from Audible.

Flow and Conceptualization

Would you consider the audio edition of The Power of Pull to be better than the print version?

I love the flow of this book, and how the author creates conceptual frameworks around the specific examples. It helps to pull back from the trees and see the forest that is being described.

What other book might you compare The Power of Pull to and why?

Exponential Organizations by Salim Ismail
Originals, by Adam Grant b/c it also takes a counterintuitive looks at things.
How To Fail at Almost Everything, by Scott Adams b/c proceeds from the assumption that many things are possible once you are willing to question your own assumptions about life. And the reality we live in today is primarily the outcome of structures and systems that technology has created (sometimes with our help, sometimes on its own).

Don't waste your time

I have never written a book review before but this time I am just miffed.

I could not even finish this book in my opinion it was a total waste of time. When will authors start writing business books that actually provide value to their readers again?

A 5 hour book about meeting people and using connections later? Give me a break!

What did this book actually teach?