It’s easier than ever to discover great new ideas. But I wonder how much better we’re getting at taking meaningful action based on the whirlwind of new ideas we’re now able to find.
How often do we receive a link to a great thought piece, read it (view it), get all jazzed up and then (wait for it…) forward it to a friend or tweet it?
Not good enough.
It’s great to share with others, but I wonder if, in taking that tiny action, we are giving ourselves the emotional satisfaction of having done something when, really, we’ve done nothing?
In the most obvious cases, this is about Like-ing a powerful video about a faraway tragedy.
But the pattern is the same if I see surprisingly good storytelling from USAID, or a fabulously clear, actionable piece about defining your brand, and all I do is share them.
What’s the action I’m committing to? What am I going to do differently as the result of coming across work that should change my thinking and my behavior? If all I do is share, the implication, at best, is that I’m hoping that someone else is more willing to act on something than I am.
Maybe we need a little help.
I fantasize about a Do button at the bottom of every article and viral video. Maybe this button links to a condensed Ship It book by Seth Godin and generates an email (or Evernote, or Google doc, or it gets pulled into Slack) describing exactly what I am going to do with this new thinking, with who, by when. The button helps us shift from “hey, this is interesting” to “this is what we’re going to do.”
To get us started, anyone out there seen a Do button that I’ve missed? Or want to make one?
And, if you like this idea, please DON’T just forward this blog post along.
Share this post, and any like it, with a commitment: think back to that one best idea you came across last week and write down what you’re going to do about it. As in (feel free to copy/paste/edit):
Hey Marcus,
Sasha Dichter’s blog post today got me thinking about that article I shared with you last week. We really need to change the way we run our team meetings, and my proposal is ________, which I want us to try at our meeting next week. As a next step, I’m going to….
(Bonus: commit to figuring out what your Do button is going to look like so that the next time a big idea rocks your world, you’ll take the steps to implement that idea to change your world for the better.)
The bottom line is that we are letting ourselves off the hook, and, in so doing, we’re not doing right by the people whose thinking we so deeply respect. The truth is, these people aren’t interested in being a little bit famous; they’re interested in making something happen. The best way to honor them is through the actions you take.
Brings to mind something Sean Connery said to Kevin Costner as he lay dying in the movie, “The Untouchables”: “What are you prepared to do?”
What a great scene!
A powerful post, Sasha . . . powerful because of its very truth. I’ve been wondering, if we as a society really think we can change the world and our own sphere of influence by simply clicking? By liking? Isn’t this limiting ourselves and denying our capacity for living creatively ? Information and causes and suggestions are so omnipresent these days it seems that inaction can be a result. For myself, I decided a few weeks ago, because I was feeling disempowered and ineffective — that I would take action based on observations/instructions posted by a few local friends who are well versed in local ecology/environmental work. Small actions. But at least something.