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“I wonder if my company would hire him…”
I was listening to a story being told about a keynote speaker at a conference. The speaker is huge in the innovation industry, has a number of books out, and is kind of up there on the awesome scale.
The woman telling me the story had no idea who he is.
She works at a firm that can seem a little “behind the times.” From a number of talks on Brazen and on Twitter, I know most of you feel you’re the one clued-in person at your fretfully behind companies. This scenario isn’t new to us.
Back to our story: I’m listening to this woman tell me how amazing this keynote speaker is. Since I’m well-acquainted with the speaker, his books, his articles, and again, his awesomeness, I’m thinking: Wow, what a great opportunity to hear him speak!
She then says, “I wonder if my company would hire him…”
All of a sudden, I realize she not only doesn’t know who he is, but she doesn’t have any concept of how these innovation thought leaders are treated. His speaking fee is probably the same as most people’s salaries at this woman’s firm. His expertise isn’t just in a couple journals, but on NYT Bestseller lists and constantly in the press.
She sees him as just a smart young fellow with Ph.D.
The sad part is that this story is just one version of others out in the world. For example, a Brazen webcast was talking about Dan Schawbel and his partnership with the community. He was online (we all said “Hi”), and then it started: “Who’s he?” “What’s the big deal?” “Is he famous or something?”
I don’t expect everyone to know Dan, but if you’re on a webcast, surely you have Google at your fingertips. It wasn’t shocking that people didn’t know, but that people weren’t taking a couple seconds to research and then show some kind of respect to the man. Instead, it was a lot of “Why should I care about you?” Talk about a WIIFM.
Same thing happened when Penelope interviewed Seth Godin. People thought Penelope was just some moderator instead of realizing she’s a thought leader in her own right.
Perhaps we’re such a self-centered world now that people only want to know the WIIFM instead of realizing that maybe you’re not the Sun. That maybe you need to Google a few things before making remarks. That people deserve you to hold up your end if they’re sharing expertise or bending over backwards for you.
It only takes a couple seconds to look like an idiot or look like a rock star. Which will it be?
P.S. The speaker was Dr. Chip Heath…of Chip and Dan Heath, authors of Made to Stick and Switch. Shocking, right?
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Comments
06.14.10
I'm a research junkie, so when you mentioned his name, I used my Java bookmarklet to look him up immediately. Honestly, though, not everyone will make the effort to look up people when it would be easier for them to take a passive role and be told. It's a passive barrier.
06.14.10
I wonder why the woman said - “I wonder if my company would hire him…”
I wonder because after reading the post I'm not sure if the woman is not aware of the keynote speaker's accomplishments and abilities or if there's another reason she asked this question. I'm thinking maybe this keynote speaker would not be a good fit for her company for some reason. I would have asked her point blank why she didn't think her company would have hired him. She may have had a good reason for asking this question regardless of how much she knew about him.
06.14.10
Fantastic post. I'm not sure if it's being self-centered, or if it is being lazy. Until last month, a group of high-level managers at a particular aerospace company that I spoke to had any idea who David Allen was (author of GTD). Unless you are proactive, you will not Google names, and you are probably lazy enough to ask "who is he" instead of finding out yourself.
This is why I love hanging out at Brazen. The majority of people here, like you, are leaders, and are proactive. No spoon-feeding necessary.
06.15.10
Hi all! Sorry about the delay in returning your comments, so thank you thank you thank you!!
@Caroline I've been thinking a lot around what it means to be passive and lazy. Here on Brazen the entitled conversation comes up quite a bit. To me, it's not as much of a generational thing but a lazy thing. If people were more proactive in general, perhaps more personal problems would be solved. And one thing I know, educating yourself takes a lot more activity on someone's part than most people expect.
@Mark While I don't know all the particulars, I think it was his subject area of expertise that caught her eye instead of the accomplishments. Unfortunately, if you remove the accomplishments for someone like Chip Heath, he could end up at the bottom of a service delivery pool. If you miss the whole package, sadly the link doesn't make sense.
@Dean, it's so funny you mention David Allen. We're huge into GTD around here, so it's also interesting when people don't know about that. I think the biggest thing is that if you really don't know (and you're not going to look it up), then perhaps modify your questions. Instead of "Who's that?" if you can tell someone's excited, ask "What about [person] makes you so excited?" You may learn something and not look like an idiot in the process.
06.22.10
There's a difference between being passive or lazy. They can get muddled. Being lazy is staying on your couch, watching TV for 6 hours a day. Being passive is being terrified to choose a stock fund because you don't know enough about the market to evaluate it. I'll admit that I stole the "passive barrier" idea from Ramit Sethi's website.
It is a lazy thing and it's not just our generation. Haha...if everyone was more proactive, then everyone would have a clean home and healthy bank account and everyone would be healthy and fit. That's why automation works for us. Setting up everything once and then forgetting about it works out, which is part why Ramit is so successful. If you set aside $1000 every month without ever seeing it, then you can accumulate your retirement savings without conscious effort.
Education is a complex topic. It does take a lot of activity, but you're also consuming knowledge. You're a consumer in hopes of later being a creator. And don't get me started on our educational system...
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