One Cool Free Idea

“We are our stories,” says Daniel Pink in his great analysis of the future’s need for right-brained leadership, A Whole New Mind.”  For me, stories are like those quirky double-dutch doors from the past.  Split in the middle; you can leave them half open or half shut, they work a bunch of different ways depending on your needs. But however they open, we peer through trying to understand and connect with our purpose.  And sometimes the kids, the rain, the wind, the past and the view to some future comes into focus through that doorframe.

It’s funny how some stories unfold. Last month, I had been needing a new story, or at least a chapter. Looking for some spark that would ignite new ideas and creativity.  Then one day, perhaps not coincidentally I stumbled onto some other unfolding tale that completely captured my curiousity and imagination.

It began like this:

Derek Sivers (Berklee College-turned circus guy-guitarist-CD Baby founder-Muckwork maker) had blogged about leadership using the metaphor of one shirtless Guy dancing alone before the all-important “first follower” comes along to join the dance. Six months later, Sivers delivered an inspired TED Talk using the same shirtless dude.

In the resulting avalanche of responses to Sivers, one guy suggested he write a book about the idea. In true form, Sivers passed on that idea but “gave it away free” for anyone to run with.  And on it ran…

FIRST FOLLOWER

Music strategist/idea-guy Andrew Dubber decided he would be Siver’s first follower, and then picked up the ball, but gave it a new turn by announcing he would release 30 days of ideas (one a day) free for anyone to take and run with.

Another Andrew, this time one Andrew Wicklander, a project management guy in Chicago picked up on Dubber and blogged that he would be Dubber’s first idea follower by picking one idea and taking it through to reality.  He sweetened the pie further by announcing any profits from the project would go to charity.  A community then began to form around Andrew 2.(Can you spell viral?)

Something was just too interesting to NOT join in. (Kind of like that second follower guy in video above). So I wrote Andrew a short note on his blog, basically saying ‘I’m in.’ Eleven other people were intrigued enough to sign on for the project.

Counterintuitive?  Perhaps, but I’m not one to overthink jumping on what feels like a new kind of ship sailing off to discover something new.  Will it “work?”  Seems like that’s not what matters.  We have some shared sense that whatever happens WILL be good in some way.  Better put, it just feels like something meaningful might happen in some yet-to-be determined construct.

What matters more is the journey.  Is it a hero’s journey?  Who knows. But the path will determine the destination.  And the folks on board are the kind of people who seem to be good with that kind of plot outline.

Though I’m just beginning to know these other followers, or whatever we’ll end up calling ourselves, it is cool to be with people who aren’t overly concerned with what the story is or even how it’s going to end.  They’re the kind of people who just open the page and start writing.

You can see the tribe of first followers-idea-makers, dancing dudes here.

And if you think you might want to write part of this story, let us know.