A Peoples History Of Business
I am reading Howard Zinn's classic A People's History of the United
States for the first time and it has got me thinking.
At first the book actually annoyed me due to the heavy handed anti-capital lean but
I got over it as it is the point of the book. As the book moved into
more modern times (1890-1915) I felt myself shift more towards the
working man. More importantly the power of organization and the
bottom up approach of the great labor organizers. It really is a
about people giving of themselves for the greater good and an
illustrative example of disruption of the status quo by lynchpin
personalities.
how we can all learn from the story of the People's movements. The
themes that Zinn hits on are that change never just comes from
management enacting it. Change comes from ACTION and RADICALISM. From
standing up, making noise and saying ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! If you care
about your job, the work you are doing and the fact that you KNOW it's
going badly, you have to push, you have demand change. What that might look like at work:
1. In a corporate all hands meeting stand up and tell the truth. What
is really happening at work.
"Hey CEO man, your one million dollar branding campaign is terrible
and a waste of money. Here is what you should do!"
2. Start your blog, twitter account and connect with other workers
and tell them about work.
"Just had another strategy meeting for 2010, by the way it's May"
3. Defy, resist, push and question everything.
Don't wait for approval when you know it's good idea. Resist doing on
high edicts when you know everything isn't one size fits all.
Question when some one who doesn't know your business tells you what
you need to do. What do you think the resistance at work looks like?
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