Power of Pull

The Power of Pull

Hagel, Brown, Davison (2010), ISBN 978-0-465-01935-9

Authors John Hagel, John Seely Brown, and Lang Davison suggest that information now flows like water. Successful individuals, corporations, and organizations must learn how to tap into that knowledge stream. Push is dying and pull is taking its place.

Push has been our economic model for several centuries. We forecast needs. Then we design systems to get the right people and resources together to produce those needs, using carefully scripted and standardized processes. Finally, we deliver those needs to the intended users or customers. Sounds like the classic PDCA methods to me.

We see push in the ways we deliver education, the ways we make cars, the ways we worship, the ways we provide entertainment, and the ways we run nations. Push is based on finite stocks of goods and services that are often tightly controlled, through patents, market presence, and often sheer power.

The authors suggest that pull is a different approach. It uses the power of the network (in its many forms) to first access people and resources to predict needs. Then additional people and resources are attracted to contribute. Often these contributors come from all around the world and different socioeconomic classes. You often didn't even know they existed. Finally, pull will leverage the power of this coalescing group to achieve greatness. 

Access, attract, and achieve.

These four concepts (decline of push, access leading indicators, attract like-minded individuals, and achieve greatness) are defined in the first 30 pages of the book. The remaining 250 pages expand on those four topics and give examples and suggestions.

I noticed many similarities between this book and ones by Tapscott and Williams (Wikinomics) and Jarvis (What Would Google Do?).

Of course. All three are comments on our changing world.

While I am not stupid enough to believe that the Power of Pull applies everywhere, this book raised additional doubts in my mind. Are current management systems really the best for all organizations? I first noticed these doubts about twenty years ago, as I tried to understand why innovation was so hard to cultivate. I remember reading Tor Dahl's classic paper on The Unfreezing of America  and realized that there are times when PDCA is actually harmful to the life of an organization. I continue to be frustrated by the inability of leaders to tap the power of the people. President Obama's Yes We Can is a classic example of high expectations not achieved.

I wonder if quality management systems, safety management systems, environmental management systems, security management systems, and especially the certification thereof, may be causing harm to society. Are there times when we need to encourage and allow chaos to flourish?

How can we apply the Power of Pull to our own lives, our communities, and our organizations? When do we try to do so?