I have been following Seth Godin for a while now, but mainly in his podcast Akimbo. Usually, I like his ideas and questions. When I heard that he published a new book Song of Significance: A New Manifesto for Teams, I was curious and interested. After reading, these are the main learnings.
Let’s now see more about the book Song of Significance: A New Manifesto for Teams.
This post is part of the series Learnings from books where my goal is to share what I learned from the book that I read. It is a mixture of review and summary with a bit of my opinion and point of view. But, as reviews, these learnings can say more about me than the book itself, so I trust that you the smart reader will take it with a grain of salt.
Learnings from Song of Significance
The author calls the book a manifest, it is basically a summary of the author’s view related to work, teams, and making a difference. If you listen to Akimbo, one of his podcasts, you are going to see many topics in common.
The book compares industrialism work (the cog in the system) with work that makes a difference, work that changes the world or just changes us. Work with significance.
A nice quote from the book is: “Each of us can show up in our own way, but the choice is the same: to lead, to create work that matters, and to find the magic that happens when we are lucky enough to co-create with people who care. We can do well and do better at the same time. In fact, it’s the only useful way forward. We can create the best job someone ever had, the best experience any customer can imagine.”
The book is full of learnings, but to not be a too-long post, I will share the 5 most important learnings from the book.
Workers want agency and dignity
Once people have their basic needs covered, they know exactly what they’re after in a job. It’s not about extra stock options or a fancier office. It’s much more fundamental: agency and dignity.
Having agency means having control over our time and the freedom to decide how we contribute. Since it involves responsibility and a bit of authority, agency goes against the idea of tightly controlled industrial tasks.
Dignity comes with agency, enabling us to be treated as people, not just as parts of a machine. It means getting respect for what we do and being treated with as much kindness as the circumstances permit.
Avoid false proxies
When measuring work, we should try to really measure the work, not the false proxies, like hours, for example.
Things that are straightforward to measure are usually not the most crucial and sometimes are not even important. However, it’s the easy-to-measure aspects that often take the spotlight. This includes personal charm, the number of hours put in, the rapport with the boss, and, of course, visible errors compared to a consistent lack of extra effort.
Tension is not the same as stress
Stress is the unpleasant sensation of desiring two conflicting things simultaneously. It’s the push-pull of wanting to stay and leave, speak up and hold back, or complete one task while needing to finish another. Stress interferes with our well-being, making it challenging to experience flow, joy, or a sense of significance.
On the other hand, tension is the feeling that propels us forward. It’s an indicator of the resistance described by Pressfield. Tension could manifest as a countdown, a deadline, or a budget. It’s the dynamic process of unraveling a riddle or answering a question that opens up new possibilities.
Significant organizations are team-centric
The goal of a significant organization is to effect change and achieve this alongside a community of individuals passionate about making a difference. This is why, why having committed team members is far more valuable than merely providing a convenient workplace.
As the book puts it very well, “The purpose of a beehive isn’t to make honey: honey is a by-product of a healthy hive. A significant organization can please its customers and make a profit as well. But it begins by earning enrollment and then doing the work to make change happen.”
It is up to us
It is up to us to care, to show up, lead, to create work that matters, and to discover the enchantment that arises when we are fortunate enough to collaborate with individuals who genuinely care about the work to be done.
We need to make commitments and to keep them. To be courageous, to be open to be uncomfortable in order to make a difference. We need to create the conditions for people who care to do work that they’re proud of.
Favorite quotes
These are my 5 favorite quotes from the book.
“Measuring the easy thing is the easy thing.”
“No grades, no check marks, no badges. I’m not in charge of you, and I’m not manipulating you. I’m simply establishing the conditions for you to get to where you said you wanted to go.”
“Real value is no longer created by traditional measures of productivity. It’s created by personal interactions, innovation, creative solutions, resilience, and the power of speed.”
“The revolutions begin at the edges but ultimately end up changing whatever they interact with.”
“Encouraging employees to keep their LinkedIn profiles and resumes up to date ensures that they are part of the team voluntarily, not because they believe they have no options.”
Other resources
This section is extra and here I compliment the post with content from other sources that resonate with the book.
These are my learnings from the book Song of Significance: A New Manifesto for Teams written by Seth Godin. A special thanks to Vancouver Public Library (VPL) for allowing access to the book for free.
Happy reading!
Liked this post? Check out other posts part of the series Learnings from books where my goal is to share what I learned from the book that I read. It is a mixture of review and summary with a bit of my opinion and point of view