Interview with Dan Pink: Part 2

Here it is - part 2 of our interview with Dan Pink, best-selling author of The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need.  Enjoy.

C&J: We talked about one of our favorite lessons from Johnny Bunko  in Part 1 of our interview  with you - “There is no plan”.  Our second favorite is “Leave an imprint”.  This is one of those things everyone thinks about when they watch an inspirational movie or hear a moving song…but then the moment is gone.  How do we keep it alive and who is the best example of someone you know that’s living this lesson?

DP: I think part of it is simply recalibrating what it means to leave an imprint.  I’m not talking about solving the climate crisis or fashioning world peace.  We leave an imprint when we create a product or service that people didn’t know they were missing.  We leave an imprint when we leave a customer delighted and better off than she was before our encounter with her.  We leave an imprint by writing a book like yours that helps people rethink whether “working” requires being in a physical office for a prescribed number of hours.

There are lots of people out there leaving an imprint in many, many ways.  Paul Farmer of Partners in Health is doing amazing work in Haiti.  Jessica Flannery of Kiva is reinventing the financing of microenterprises around the world.  Jeff Bezos has helped readers and writers alike by making books easier to buy and sell.  Oprah Winfrey has turned on millions to books and inspired millions more to live their best lives.  The list is long.

C&J: Your previous book, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future (a NYT, BusinessWeek, and WSJ bestseller), has this quote: “Play will be to the 21st century what work was to the last 300 years of industrial society - our dominant way of knowing, doing and creating value” (Pat Kane, author of The Play Ethic, p. 185).  In your travels, do you see this playing out and how will it help us create more value in the business world?

DP: Well, recently I was at the Motley Fool, which has used playfulness to reinvent the notion of financial information and advice.  That’s a great example.  In general, a sense of playfulness and joyfulness is fundamental to iterating new products, services, and experiences.  That’s always been important.  It’s doubly so in a downturn when consumers are going to be resistant to opening their wallets.

C&J: You are an expert on the changing landscape of the business environment and the people in it.  What is the biggest reason for change that companies need to respond to - attraction and retention of Gen Y, productivity concerns, etc.?

DP: Of course, companies - like the human beings who inhabit them - resist change.  We all do.  As Isaac Newton taught us several centuries ago, inertia is a powerful force.  What I’ve seen is that companies typically change for two reasons.  First, the cost of *not* changing is enormously, enormously high.  When the two options on the table are a) change or b) go out of business, most choose (a).  Second, I’ve seen that some companies change even when not facing imminent death when they have an especially inspired, forward-thinking leader.  A.G. Lafley is a good example of that.  P&G wasn’t dying.  But he managed to reinvigorate the company and change the way it approached its business.  Often, it’s both a crisis and a leader who steps up to deal with it.  Lou Gerstner at IBM is one good example.  Here’s hoping our next President is another.

We love Dan’s response about “leaving an imprint” - ultimately, this is what life is all about.  During ROWE migrations, we often see individuals make the ROWE leap because they do want their lives to be more meaningful.  How are you working toward leaving your imprint?

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