š¤ PeopleFirst
The Journey
People First has been a winding journey for the last four years. Most recently, I find it has been coming together in my mind very clearly and with that clarity I have been encouraged to talk about what is going on in a more open manner. The interesting thing is that as I have become more open about what I am doing, more questions are being asked.
A year ago, asking someone to sign up for the newsletter resulted in them either signing up for the newsletter - or not. No questions. No debate.
Today, I still have the newsletter , added a podcast, the book is coming out shortly and now we are beginning to create community - the questions are beginning to flow.
I still donāt understand. What is the mission/goal of the group(s)?
a newsletter reader
and
What would you say, in three or so sentences, is the hard objective of People First? Not the vague, all singing all dancing "unleashing human potential" nor the activity based "bringing like minds together" etc. What are you (and other participants) trying to tangibly accomplish? This isn't rhetorical. I am just trying to understand what will change/improve at the coal face as a result of your combined efforts.
a newsletter reader
This post is not to answer the questions ... yet. I touched on it in this weeks newsletter - and was specific about that, but hereās the good news. One takeaway for the recurring question is that people are sitting up, listening, they are interested ... which from where I sit is all good news.
As one reader wrote ...
I believe you are on the verge of an overnight success!!!
I hope he's right!
By my calculation, my substacks are a 5-minute read.
To subscribe takes 10 seconds.
My Convocast with @AndySylvester intersected with my People First podcast this week … so I used the same recording for both.
Andy asked me - should people learn to code?
This was my take ā¦
What’s yours?
People First Is Not Political
Though it might well be political.
I am writing this post, which is extracted from an email I had cause to write this week when someone questioned a stance I had taken in a newsletter that Pink Floyd was a punk band.
I know - right?
To quote the writer ...
"And Pink Floyd a punk band, WTF!!???)"
an email correspondent
I often take a contrary stance on things to elicit a response. But when I take that stance, it isn't uninformed, just different. So 'Pink Floyd is a punk band' had the desired effect, it elicited response - but no logical argument back, just a preconceived notion that they are a rock/progressive band - which cant possibly be punk. Me - I still say YES. I mean if Malcolm McLaren can produce an album that fuses opera and R&B has he lost his punk? Rigid classification just doesnāt work - I think that also goes some way to explaining how databases have transitioned over time from hierarchical to relational to graph. But back to Punk Floyd.
A Collection of Links you might enjoy - if not - read on
- MTO 21.2: Cohen, Expansive Form in āDogsā
- Pink Floydād Animals pulls no political punches 40 years later
- There is actually a punk band called Punk Floyd
- Punk Floyd : Were Pink Floyd one of the biggest influences on punk?
The point of it all being that if Punk is only about the music / style / genre ā¦ thenĀ no, Pink Floyd is not a Punk Band
BUT
If Punk is allĀ about anti-establishment commentary and political action -Ā then absolutely yes, they are ... and Roger Waters specifically is the original punk.
Have you seen his Mexico concert?
The desire of the article and a lot of what I write is to take a non obvious stance to make people sit up and either respond "right, I never thought about it that way" or "the guys talking crapā ā¦ and I lookĀ forward to that debate ā¦ always seeking to learn.
Thinking Allowed
This is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. Itās a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.- More about People First
- Other People First Posts
(not just from the āother domainā ā¦ all of them.)
What Drives Us
StoweBoyd
Interesting read, questioning the relevance of Maslow in this new century. I think he is onto something.
It's a couple of months old now - but sharing for posterity.
Trust
CX in the age of privacy and trust, part 3: Can we rebuild trust?
Tim Walters
Fits nicely into something I read recently from Union Square Ventures .... Trust is offence (trust gaps create opportunities for startups) as well as defence (trust is a moat).
Skills
Soft skills ... wooly, fluffy, comfortable ... not like ' real, hard, proper skills are they?
Soft skills, bendy, malleable, unmeasurable ... nothing like ' real, hard, proper skills ...
.. and yet
I often talk about vocabulary and language .... here's another one ... because if you list all the skills that people are highlighting as important in the future - it's close identical to the soft skill list.
My advice ... get into that cuddly warm blanket and embrace those soft skills -- you can always learn the other skills as and when you need them ... despite the name ... they're not that hard.
Character
I was really taken by these words that came in an email from one of my newsletter readers. Capturing it for posterity ... because it is important.
Character may be something you are born with and largely in place by age 5 but surely it is something that is developed and refined in many ways through a thousand experiences in both good and bad directions. Right?
Since a zillion years ago I have ALWAYS subscribed to "hire character, teach skills". It has never let me down and the boneheaded moves I have made here and there were when I deviated from this.
The Future of Work
First, there are many possible futures - it is not yet clear what the future is, so we should be asking what is ...
A Future of Work?
Second, what the hell is āworkā - why do we care about it?
If you ask most people if all their creature comforts were taken care of - would they continue to do what they are doing? More than likely they will answer ānoā - the question then is what is ...
The/A Future of Income?
Third, the future is already here, so let's call it
The Present of Work
ā¦. and by the 'Present of Work' - your life, labour, time to do your work is not a gift, not a present. You should be paid fairly and equitably for your contribution.
Thinking Allowed
This is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. Itās a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.- More about People First
- Other People First Posts
(not just from the āother domainā ā¦ all of them.)
Technology
Technology is one of the eight pillars of People First ... with a single, solitary 'stoneā, a mighty 'Sarsen' reaching to the sky that is that pillar.
Technology ... OMG ... Technology
- Owned
- Managed
- Governed
... not by you - by others.
Greg Orme is a business director at The London Business School and his latest book āThe Human Edgeā won The Business Book Awards Best Business Book for 2020.
He came on to the People First podcast and shared his findings, hope you enjoy.
This week’s People First Podcast features LaTonya Peoples - a classical violinist who composed the music I use on the podcast. Turns out there is a whole lot to LaTonya that I did not know.
Enjoy … and let me know what you think.
Came across this through a different collection of people - but believe that there are sufficient people in here to share and solicit thoughts.
Local-first software - You own your data, in spite of the cloud
This weeks newsletter from People First is out ā¦ … which announces the new People First Podcast - which also explains why I have been a little quiet lately !!!!
Hope you all enjoy.
This is the new āfull onā People First Podcast BTW - currently available through 14 channels.
Very People First Like
Ā
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Get Revue is a newsletter that promotes newsletters - and behind it has a fledgling back end that is indexing newsletters to help people find writing on topics and people they find interesting.
The Future Is Boring And Predictable
.. at least if we go to where the so called āfuturists' are taking us.
This week’s newsletter from People First just went live.
One of the People First tenets
The answer is ābigā apparently (well according to Forbes) - so maybe not THAT big!
Why CMOs Need To Start Thinking About Business To Robot To Consumer Marketing