Showing loyalty by giving credit where credit is due is a way to make massive deposits in people’s trust account.  As Robert Townsend former CEO of Avis said: “It’s been my experience that the people who gain trust, loyalty, excitement, and energy fast are the ones who pass on the credit to the people who have really done the work.  A leader doesn’t need the credit…they get more credit than they deserve anyway.” As our friend and associate Dottie Gandy emphasizes: ” it is not only important to give credit to people for what they do it is also important to acknowledge people for who they are.”

In the new edition of The Carrot Principle:How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent, and Accelerate Performance authors Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton found that 79% of talent that left organizations did so for lack of appreciation and 65% in North America report they were not recognized in the least bit in the last year.  These two statistics alone are worth the price of this book but they have interviewed over 200,000 workers and the results will shock you.  I know it did me. This one is a must read for anyone who manages people regardless of the setting including parents and teachers!  Lack of giving credit is clearly one of the high costs of low trust.

Twitter is remarkable. Follow us.  I ignored it too long thinking it was not scalable or professionally relevant.  My strategic business thinking is obviously sometimes my biggest handicap.  I was wrong, it scales the entire globe. It is both personal, i keep up with kids and grandkids, and professional,  I connect and communicate with like minded thinkers around the world.  Short story first.  A new friend on twitter Dinesh connected me to some wonderful TV footage on the Economist of an interview with Jaya Kumar, the Chief Marketing Officer of one of our clients, FritoLay, and Tony Hsieh,  CEO of Zappos.com talking about trust, transparency, high trust culture and specifically the Speed of Trust.  This is something that in the “old days” in the late 80′s early 90′s when we launched the 7 Habits book would have slipped through our fingers and not been shared with as broad and committed of an audience.  This conversation would not have been transparent to me so that I could engage it, leverage it and share it.  I also now have the opportunity and intend to acknowledge and thank Jaya for it. 

Another new friend in Denmark gave me tips on what to see on my upcoming trip to Amsterdam.   Another did the same in London.

The longer story that comes to mind is the significance of the realization of the transcendent potential of the world wide web so eloquently described by Christopher Locke at the turn of the century (the 21st century that is) in 2000 in his book the cluetrain manifesto:

“More important, all of us are finding our voices once again.  Learning how to talk to one another.  Slowly recovering from a near fatal brush with zombification after watching Night of the Living Sponsor reruns all of our lives.  Inside, Outside, there’s a conversation going on today that wasn’t happening at all 5 years ago (95) and hasn’t been very much in evidence since the Industrial Revolution began.  Now, spanning the planet via Internet and World Wide Web, this conversation is so vast, so multifaceted, that trying to figure what it is about is futile.  It’s about a billion years of pent-up hopes and fears and dreams coded in serpentine double helixes, the collective flashback deja vu of our strange perplexing species.  Something ancient, elemental, sacred, something very very funny that’s broken loose in the pipes and wires of the 21st century.  There are millions of threads in this conversation, but at the beginning and end of each one is a human being… This fervid desire for the Web bespeaks a longing so intense that it can only be understood as spiritual.  A longing indicates something is missing in our lives.  What is missing is the sound of the human voice.  The spiritual lure of the Web is the promise of the return of voice.“ 

Twitter is clearly a giant leap forward in that direction.

The Globe and Mail is considered Canada’s national paper with over 1 million readers.  Stephen was interviewed by Sarah Boesveld last week and his remarks appeared in today’s Globe and Mail in an article entitled Ambiguity Anxiety.   Stephen had this to say about the pressure on trust in the current crisis when managers are secretive: ”They tend to be done without very much openness, without very much transparency – people in rooms all day long behind closed doors. And when they emerge, managers dish out spin and don’t give employees the straight goods,” he says.

I finally got an Amazon Kindle 2 and must say so far it has exceeded my expectations.  The ability to word search all your books alone is worth the ride.  The Speed of Trust is available in a Kindle version and searching that on the fly has proved very useful.  It holds 1500 books which beats the 500 or so that crowd my office.  You can take notes but it definitely is not as intuitive as a pen and highlighter but I am getting used to it.  It feels miraculous to not carry the 3 to 4 books I usually end up traveling with and you can easily read several at a time as it picks up where you left off so it is simple to read several books simultaneously.  The digital paper is also surprisingly easy to read even in sunlight.  While off, the Kindle displays delightful pencil sketches of authors.  It rotates randomly and one day it displayed the definition of Kindle: light or set fire, arouse or inspire (an emotion or feeling), become impassioned or exited.  I can not yet say that my Kindle has impassioned me but you can say it has re-kindled my goal to meet the challenge that Dr. Stephen R. Covey gave to me years ago: to read a book a week.   Most years I have not hit that goal but I have a couple of years past and I will say that his challenge has dramatically increased the number of books I have read in the last 22 years and that is a HABIT worth having.  Maybe it is The 9th Habit!

In the foreword of his game changing new book for education,  The Leader In Me my good friend Dr. Stephen R. Covey misspoke.  Rare for him.  With this the 20th anniversary year of his landmark book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People it’s about time I tell one on him.  My dear Dr. C, the comment in the foreword that I take such exception to is your reference to the 7 Habits that “the book caught a wave that even I had no way of anticipating”.  Not only did you anticipate it, you willed it into being.  You epitomize Jim Collins level 5 leader that he refers to in Good to Great as having a perfect blend of deep personal humility and intense professional will.

 I remember it clearly, I had only worked with Dr. Covey for a couple of years and we were having a meeting with our publisher Simon & Schuster in thier headquarters in Rockafeller Center in New York City.  Their entire team met with us around the big round marble table on the executive floor.   I considered myself an optimist even then but Dr. C exceeded my expectations.  This was 1989 and we were trying to convince the S&S brain-trust that they should do a first print run of 100,000 copies for The 7 Habits, which for a first time business author was unheard of.  I can still see the S&S executives rolling their eyes as we suggested such an absurd proposal. (You S&S folks know who you are).  It gets better.  As support for his request Dr. C proceeded to inform them that he predicted that 7 Habits would sell 10 million copies by the end of it’s first decade. You could have heard a pin drop as the S&S executives looked at each other like whose gonna be the one that tells this guy he is out of his ever loving mind and is as naive as a country bumpkin (from Utah no less).  Well, you know the rest of the story, 7 Habits did sell over 10 million copies the first decade and darn near an additional 10 million in the second decade and is still a top 100 book of all books on Amazon as we speak.

Are you more suspicious?  Who can you count on?  

We all are sitting straight up right now and have a high level of suspicion of others especially as it comes to our money.  I was just listening to Tom Brokaw’s commencement address to Emory University from 2005.  He said this about money to these graduating seniors as they started their new life: “In this new life you will also have to think about money in a new way, life after all is not an ATM, now you have to earn the money.  Think about how you can hang on to some of it, and if you are fortunate, use the money that is beyond what you need, to save a life, to save a neighborhood, to save the world. You may be surprised to learn that it is that use of money, that is the most satisfying and gratifying.  In our family where we began with no money, we like to say that we have  discovered that God invented money so those that have it can help others.  More over while money helps, it is discounted somehow if it does not carry your full personal value and commitment.  A few years ago in a ceremony similar to this one, I declared: ‘it is easy to make a buck but it is tough to make a difference.’  A father of one of the graduates, a Wall Street success wrote to me suggesting a rewrite of that line, he said it’s tough to make a buck but if you make a lot of bucks you can make a hell of a difference. A or B because there is no wrong answer.”  Tom went on to tell this, “Class of 9/11″ as he called them (because they entered college the month of 9/11) that they had a responsibility to rise to the occasion to right the global ship of state.  

Now is the time to have a propensity to trust each other and risk again.  Now is the time to give to others and have an abundance mentality, when everything in us and around us, screams for us to have a fear based scarcity mentality.  Now is the time to use our time, not for worry, but for lifting others with our time and our treasure as history tells us we have again and again. Trust that the ripple effect of extending trust will create a tide that will raise all of us–again.  

This brings to mind a quote from George Bernard Shaw that my wife Annie and I love so much.  We first heard it from Werner Erhard in the 70′s and Annie shared it with Stephen R. Covey who quoted it in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  It sums up my feeling today as it has these last three decades.  We invite you to join us in sparking a global renaissance of trust.

George Bernard Shaw:

“This is the true joy in life–that being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one.  That being a force of nature, instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.  I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it what ever I can.  I want to be thoroughly used up when I die.  For the harder I work the more I live.  I rejoice in life for its own sake.  Life is no brief candle to me. It’s sort of a splendid torch which I’ve got to hold up for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”    

May we all be a force of nature.

Previously I mentioned that I was reading Jeff Jarvis’ new book What Would Google Do?  I was just struck by his comments on market trust: “Leaders in government, news media, corporations, and universities think they and their institutions can own trust when, of course, trust is given to them.  Trust is earned with difficulty and lost with ease….Trust is an act of opening up; it’s a mutual relationship of transparency and sharing.  The more ways you find to reveal yourself and listen to others, the more you will build trust, which is your brand.”  We of course, agree whole heartedly.  Jeff does an excellent job of giving us a glimpse of the implications of violating trust in a post google transparent world.  His experience with Dell is worth the price of the book alone. How we behave in this financial crisis will effect our credibility, reputation and brand for years to come.  Are you behaving in ways that inspire the trust of your stakeholders, especially your customers?  

I will resist the almost overwhelming temptation to quote Jeff further and will instead, again, strongly urge you to read this book right away.  In times of trouble we need to challenge ourselves to get better and to reframe our thinking.  Jeff provokes new thinking that I believe, regardless of your profession or industry, will either excite you about the possibilities of the future or scare you enough to confront reality and change your expectations.  You know I read a lot of business books so I have a somewhat informed judgement.  I predict that this is another Tipping Point  and as such will top the business lists for years to come.

Jeff Jarvis explores that question as a window on the future market reality in his very compelling new book of the same name.  What Would Google Do? is thought provoking on many levels.  As our friend Seth Godin says “Five years from now, many people are going to regret the fact that they didn’t read this book today, when they had the chance.”  I feel the same way.  I can’t put it down.  Read it before your competition does.

One of the world’s great business influencers graduated this week.  With honors! It is with great love and profound sadness that I report the passing of a great soul, friend and author last Saturday, January 24th, a few months shy of his 63rd birthday–Dr. Blaine Lee.

Blaine was a beloved friend and mentor of 26 years to me and countless customers and associates of FranklinCovey.  His big heart and tremendous passion endeared him to all who worked with him.  His ability to bring executives to the real issues of their personal responsibility, first surprised and then delighted them.  But it certainly endeared him to them for life.  I was with Blaine when we taught the 7 Habits to Oprah and the executives at Harpo. I remember O asking me how Blaine expected her to write a mission statement when she “did not know what was around the corner”.    Watching Blaine challenge and engage Oprah was a sight to behold and he definitely influenced her with honor.  

Blaine was a co founder of Covey Leadership Center which became FranklinCovey and he was instrumental in our success.  Blaine inspired countless people to influence with honor and use their legitimate power rather than resort to coercive authority.

Blaine was the author of The Power Principle: Influence With Honor which Kenny Blanchard called “profound” and Stephen R. Covey called “life changing”.  Yes it was both to me and thousands of people around the world.  Blaine Lee was one of the most influential business thinkers and influencers of his generation. 

I was moved by the reminder by Joseph Grenny, co-author of Crucial Conversations as we wept together at Blaine’s funeral that one of the core teachings of the 7 Habits is imagining you were at your own funeral and thinking about what you would want to be said about you.  The idea is to live your life accordingly.  Well there we sat at Blaine’s funeral and realized he did just that.  Judging from the remarkable tributes to Blaine from his brother and sons and our own direct experience of him, Blaine lived up to that challenge. He left this world a better place than he found it and took with him the only thing that accompanies us out of this life, his indomitable spirit and a significantly informed intelligence.

We are confident Blaine will continue his influence beyond this world. It’s certain his influence will continue to touch our world. My dear Blaine you will be sorely missed and always remembered.   As his son Ben said: ” See you in the morning Dad!”

Malcolm Gladwell has done it again. His new book Outliers is well worth the read and is already #9 of all books on the USA Today bestseller list. Outliers brilliantly challenges our assumptions about success. It makes my short list of stimulating reads about success. It is extraordinary for a growing a global perspective by learning new insights about success in other cultures. Gladwell again comes up with stimulating and surprising examples that are thought provoking and help develop our lateral thinking. It is a great book to inspire us to get better and rethink our level of play and effort. I was particularly moved by the concept that it takes 10,000 hours to master success and that hard work can overcome other disadvantages. Another unlikely insight I gained was about educating my grandchildren and helping them step up to the future. Well done Malcolm.

Our friend Paul Allen an internet entreprenuer extraordinaire,  quoted The Speed of Trust in a very interesting explanation of the power of referrals on his blog entitled The Power of LinkedIn and The Speed of Trust.   Paul is one of the brightest minds we know and you will enjoy his insights on the potential of social networking from a marketing perspective.

Take 2 one of England’s leading online booksellers today announced that The Speed of Trust was the #7 Bestselling book in Britain last week!

Mellisa Long & Stephen M. R. Covey

Stephen M.R. Covey talks about what role trust plays in business and relationships.  Stephen was interviewed by Mellissa Long on CNN about trust in themarketplace. 

QQ.com is the #1 internet portal in China reaching over 90% of all web users in China with over 273 million active accounts.  That is nearly the entire population of the U.S. or Europe both children and adults!  In a lengthy interview Stephen and I were struck by the similarities of the questions and the high level of interest in the topic of Trust consistent with what we experience in other countries.  There was no sense of caution as the interviewer pointed out the low levels of trust that still exist in China between the government and business. The Speed of Trust is published in both simple and Complex Chinese and is selling well.  

Stephen emphasized the common ground of the topic of trust in relationships with team members from various nations.  He pointed out that the 13 behaviors of high trust leaders are common to leaders around the globe regardless of nationality.  There was significant interest in Stephen’s assertion that trust many times can be restored  or to a great degree improved after it is broken.  It is not black and white.  This resonated as a hopeful concept for China as they tend to consider dire consequences to loosing face or damaging your family or business reputation.  Stephen also discussed the gains in market trust and brand reputation gained by China due to their hosting the Olympics.  The national pride in China fueled by the Olympics and rising economics is evident in conversations with local leaders. 

Ever thought of starting your own business? Our good friends, Ken Blanchard and Ethan Willis, have teamed up to write Ken’s next bestseller: The One Minute Entrepreneur. I first met Ken 23 years ago when I lived in San Diego, just after he had published The One Minute Manager and before it became the New York Times bestseller (and sold more than 12 million copies in 27 languages). It was Ken that introduced me to a new entrepreneur in 1986, Dr. Stephen R. Covey, who had an idea for a book.  We all know the rest of that story.  Every time I see Kenny, he asks me, “Link, what has become clear to you since we last spoke?”  A provocative question.  Well Ken, what is clear to me is that The One Minute Entrepreneur is a must-read book.

The Speed of Trust is # 2 on BusinessWeek Magazine’s latest bestseller list and is sweeping global business circles.

The Speed of Trust continues to gain momentum around the world in our quest to be a catalyst for a global renaissance of Trust.  It was #5 on Canada’s respected Financial Times’ bestseller list over Easter weekend. 

When the going gets tough, projects, money, and jobs gravitate to trusted high performers.  The Speed of Trust teaches 13 behaviors common to high trust people and leaders throughout the world.  The last to be laid-off or outsourced are those “go to” performers that are trusted.  

As Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail and Editor-in-Chief of WIRED magazine, stated in his interview with Stephen M. R. Covey on The Speed of Trust: “Money was the currency of the old economy; Trust is the currency of the new, global economy.” Stephen M. R. Covey is fast becoming the global CEO of Trust. Stephen will be speaking in Singapore, Hong Kong, and several other Asian cities in late May.

The Speed of Trust is the #1 Best Selling Business Book according to todays Journal!

Happy Valentines day Geri Covey and Annie Link #12 USA TODAY February 14th!!

New York Times Bestseller

CEO Read recently named The Speed of Trust as the #1 most read business book by CEO’s and executives for 2007.  We are honored and feel this speaks to the ever growing relevance of Trust in todays Global Marketplace.

Response to Covey’s recent remarks to ChicagoLand Business Leaders:

“The Speed of Trust is not a topic, it is a movement — one that I encourage all Chicago businesses to engage in.”

–Jerry Roper, President & CEO, ChicagoLand Chamber of Commerce

The Speed of Trust, is already in its 5^th printing less than three months after publication!  BusinessWeek just selected it as one of the top five career books of 2006 along with Jack Welch’s new book.  This is particularly impressive given that The Speed of Trust was only published for the last two months of 2006. 

Warren Bennis, bestselling author of On Becoming a Leader, had this to say about Stephen M. R. Covey’s new book (fall 2006) entitled The SPEED of Trust:  “Covey’s book underscores the single most important factor-the substrate-that will determine the success (or failure) of any organization in the 21st Century: TRUST. This is a powerful read: brave, imaginative, amazingly prescient and backed up by empirical and analytical heft. A must read for anyone in a position of responsibility, from a support group to a global corporation.”

We are THRILLED to announce that today is the long awaited official publication date of “The SPEED of Trust” by Stephen M. R. Covey.

 We know your time is precious and that we are certainly biased, but we are confident you will join the CEO of Black & Decker, Nolan Archibald, in discovering that “The SPEED of Trust” is well worth your time. He put it this way: 

“When I received this book and was asked to read it and offer my comments, my first impulse was, ‘I don’t have the time.’  However, as I read the foreword, then the first few chapters, I could not put it down.  It is exactly what business leaders need today. This book gets to the core roots of ethical behavior and integrity and how ‘trust’ is the most critical factor in effective leaders and organizations.  Covey discusses with clarity and insight how to develop trust through character and competence and how ‘trusted’ leaders and organizations do things better, faster, and at lower costs.  Everyone should make the time to read this book.”

William Parrett, CEO of Deloitte Touche Tomatsu, adds,

“The Speed ofTrust is Red-hot relevant.”

 Yes, we know, you still have books you have not finished reading on your bedside stand.  However, this book is different; we know you will finish this one.  As Nolan Archibald said above, he could not put it down.  Besides, trust is the one thing that will change your relationships and career for the better.

 As Chris Anderson, Publisher of WIRED magazine and author of the hot new book “The Long Tail,” told Stephen in a recent interview: “The currency of the old economy was simply money.  The new currency is trust itself. People confer their attention to the people who have earned it.  So trust is the new currency of the reputation economy.”

Dr. Laura said: “Want to be an irresistible positive force?  Combine personal responsibility with compassion and respect for others.  Want to know how to do this perfectly?  Read The Speed of Trust.”

One last plug, October 8th’s New York Times’ Book Review had this to say: “Of the three [books], the most intriguing is “The Speed of Trust” (Free Press, $26), by Mr. Covey, a Harvard M.B.A. who previously ran the Covey Leadership Center, which featured the work of his father, Stephen R. Covey—a guru in his own right as author of ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.’  The younger Mr. Covey, a potential guru himself, defines trust as a combination of character and competence.”

Stephen spoke to several hundred business people in Colorado last week  in anticipation of the the long awaited publication of The Speed of Trust.  The reaction?

Gaye Stockman, President & CEO of the Loveland Colorado Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Center, had this to say: “Covey’s The Speed of Trust presentation was an amazing event for the Loveland Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center. Not only did we have a wonderful turnout of approximately 500 business professionals in Northern Colorado, but the support from sponsors leading up to the event was awesome. Rarely are we able to put together a presentation and have it become self-sustaining within such a short period of time. We managed to do it all within three weeks. Now that says something – not only for The Speed of Trust but about the public’s readiness to hear this message. Thank you for helping us spread this powerful message throughout our business community. We continue to hear from our members how great Mr. Covey’s presentation was.” 

I suggest that the speed of trust in this case was the trust the community had in Gaye and her team.

A couple of weeks ago, I received an extraordinary book from our friend, Tom Peters, entitled, “Sixty.”  I devoured it as my vacation reading.   It is a magical compilation of 60 TIB’s or Things I Believe, as he calls them – one for each year of Tom’s life . . . so far.  I add, “so far” as I sent Tom the cover of the AARP magazine a couple of years ago with the headline “60 is the new 30.”  We are all blessed to have virtually a second adult life after 60.  Fortunately for all of us, Tom is in the best health he has been for years and will continue to influence our thinking and our actions for years to come.

The compelling question is what will we do with our extra years?  Retire?  Not hardly.  Ken Blanchard told us he prefers to think of it as refiring, not retiring.  Nobel thought.  We would like to think that we can have even more influence and make a bigger difference in our experienced years.  They say we have two ages:  our chronological age and our biological age.  To this we add a third, our experiential age.   While it is physically healthy to reduce our biological age, we contend that it is mentally and spiritually healthy to expand our experiential age.  Said another way, in five years, will you have muddled through one year five times or will you have increased your experiential age by 10 years, learning more exponentially each successive year?  Leaning into life and being our best selves is not only valuable for leaving a legacy that will outlive us, but, more importantly, our experience and knowledge is basically all we take with us to the next life.  The concept of “he who dies with the most toys wins” has long since been debunked.  (You don’t see U-Haul trailers behind hearses.) 

Back to Tom Peters outstanding book, “Sixty.”  It is a piece of art.  A unique combination of design, images, and paradigm-shaking content. For now, for the sake of brevity, I will highlight an excerpt from one of my favorites.

#46  “Excellence is a state of mind.” 

“I don’t believe in the tooth fairy.  And I don’t own a pair of rose-colored glasses.  On the other hand, I do believe: I believe in the possibility of turning any task, assignment, project, or job into a Gem-Mighty Quest. I believe in the possibility of widespread excellence.  Note, I said . . . possibility . . . of excellence.

Enter old Tom.  That is…Thomas Watson…the de facto IBM founder.  Rumor has it that Watson was once asked, ‘How long does it take to achieve excellence?’  His response, pre-dating Ken Blanchard by decades, was, ‘A minute.’  He continued by claiming that excellence was entirely in the hands of the perpetrator, no matter how ‘junior’ or ‘powerless’  Excellence…a state of mind?  A decision, actually, per Watson.  A decision…right now…to…never again…do anything that is not excellent.

. . . If you are an exercise freak (and I am…most of the time), you know exactly what I am talking about.  You may be breathless…but there’s little that’s more self-satisfying than knowing that you’ve pushed yourself right to the edge of the possible…and then a little beyond. That feeling, I contend, is replicable…on any task…at any time.  Does ‘it’ turn you on?  Will ‘it’ have been marked by…excellence?  And if not, precisely what do you intend to do about it?  Right now?”

Thanks Tom!  

That’s the profound question New York Times three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Thomas L. Friedman asks his readers in his thought-provoking #1 bestseller, The World is Flat, A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century.1

Wait a minute, are you still convinced that everything you once learned about Christopher Columbus and the Santa Maria is true?  Well, maybe it was—back then.  But today, if you plan to stay in the game, Friedman suggests you reconsider and re-learn.  In an interview with Tom Nissley of Amazon.com, Friedman explains:

“What I mean when I say that the world is flat is that sometime in the late 1990’s a whole set of technologies and political events converged—including the fall of the Berlin Wall, the rise of the Internet, the diffusion of the Windows operating system, the creation of a global fiber-optic network, and the creation of interoperable software applications, which made it very easy for people all over the world to work together—that leveled the playing field. It created a global platform that allowed more people to plug and play, collaborate and compete, share knowledge and share work, than anything we have ever seen in the history of the world.”

Friedman asks people in his book where they were when they realized the world was flat.  Amazon’s Nissley asked Friedman where he was.  His response:  “I was in Bangalore, India, the Silicon Valley of India, when I realized that the world was flat.  I was doing a documentary for the Discovery Times Channel about “outsourcing.” After 60 hours of interviews with Indian entrepreneurs who wanted to write my software from Bangalore, do my taxes from Bangalore, trace my lost luggage from Bangalore, read my x-rays from Bangalore, and draw my Disney cartoons from Bangalore, I realized that something big had happened– the world had been flattened–and I needed to write about it.”

Friedman suggests that when the tech bubble popped in the late 90’s, followed by the distractions of Y2K mania, the tragedies of 9/11, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, we westerners blinked and missed the fact that the flattening of the global economy was beginning to accelerate at a hang-on-to-your-seat pace.  Friedman interviewed Henry Schacht, who, during part of this period, was watching the whole process from the side of corporate management.

“The business economics, [he told Friedman] became ‘very ugly’ for everyone. . . .  ‘Cost pressures were enormous,’ he recalled, ‘and the flat world was available, [so] economics were forcing people to do things they never thought they would do or could do . . . Globalization got supercharged’—for both knowledge work and manufacturing.  Companies found that they could go to MIT and find four incredibly smart Chinese engineers who were ready to go back to China and work for them from there for the same amount that it would cost them to hire one engineer in America.”

Let’s think about this.  Besides the fact that your accountant is already outsourcing your tax return work to India, your most recent CAT scan or MRI was most likely deciphered in Australia, you’re having a hard time understanding the English spoken at the other end of the help-line, and the MP3 you just bought came with directions in 14 different languages, what does this flattened world really mean for you and your future—both personally and professionally? 

Friedman asked this question of Jaithirth Rao, whose Indian firm, MphasiS, is successfully and lucratively able to handle outsourced tax work “from any state in America and the federal government.”  Said Rao, “It is a good question. . . . We are in the middle of a big technological change, and when you live in a society that is at the cutting edge of that change [like America], it is hard to predict.  It’s easy to predict for someone living in India. In ten years we are going to be doing a lot of the stuff that is being done in America today. . . .  Any activity where we can digitize and decompose the value chain and move the work around, it will get moved around.  We can predict our future.  But we are behind you.  You are defining the future.  America is always on the edge of the next creative wave.”

Defining the future . . . the edge of the next creative wave. . . .  Just what is this future, this creative wave we’re all going to want to catch?  Friedman supplies a solid answer through L. Gary Boomer, CEO of Boomer Consulting in Manhattan KS, who explains, “Those who get caught in the past and resist change will be forced deeper into commoditization.  Those who can create value through leadership, relationships, and creativity will transform [their] industries, as well as strengthen relationships with their existing clients.”

According to Publishers Weekly, Friedman agrees with the transnational business executives, who are his main sources, that these [world flattening] developments are desirable and unstoppable and that American workers should be preparing to “create value through leadership.”2

At CoveyLink, we couldn’t agree more.  The global call for capable, innovative, trust-based leadership is intensifying.  World-class leadership and business relies on trust and trust has been the lubricant of commerce since the world’s first merchants began trading seeds, then beads, then goods and services.

“Fortune favors the prepared mind.” – Louis Pasteur

The growth of knowledge work both leads and informs this important global trend.  Knowledge work is dependent upon relationships and relationships, of course, thrive on trust.  Trust fuels this new global economy just as trust magnifies or diminishes every other leadership competency you have, including your vision—a vision which must now include the entire globe regardless of your industry or profession.

The world is not becoming flat, it is already flat.  And, yes, it will get flatter.  If you haven’t yet caught onto this fact, read Friedman’s book.  In fact, we recommend you read it now, then read it again every year as a gauge to hold up against your most recent, brilliant strategic assumptions. 

One last memorable thought from Friedman:

“In China, Bill Gates is a Britney Spears – they scalp tickets to hear him speak.  In America today, Britney Spears is Britney Spears. That’s the problem.”