Creating Agency Instead of Obedience with Seth Godin

When surveying 10,000 people in 90 countries for his latest book, The Song of Significance, Seth Godin found that the top response for an aspect of the best job participants had ever had was not money, which Godin says is a common assumption of bosses, but being allowed to feel challenged at work in a healthy way. However, from an industrialist mindset, employees having agency (that is, freedom plus responsibility) and significance in their work is not the top priority of employers—instead, they want to exert control and gain obedience, according to Godin.

Godin has learned from the many experiences and jobs he’s had throughout his life, including his first job as an underqualified 23-year-old in a company making computer games for kids and, more recently, as a volunteer running The Carbon Almanac. Now, he discusses some of those lessons with Brilliant Thoughts host Tristan Ahumada, as well as industrial capitalism and its connection to schooling, “page 19 thinking” and the uses of AI, as well as the necessity of understanding it before you choose to ignore it. 

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Mentioned:

• Song of Increase by Jacqueline Freeman

• Stop Stealing Dreams by Seth Godin
• The Principles of Scientific Management by Frederick Taylor
• The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber

Seth Godin is a bestselling author, entrepreneur and speaker.

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