Is "Power of Pull" the Cluetrain of the second decade ?

I have been reading "The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion" in about the same time I was finishing reading of „10 years anniversary edition of ClueTrain manifesto”. And not long time after I proclaimed that the famous „Groundswell” was a ClueTrain fulfilment !

Today, I found the another concept and, in fact, another trend, that is the realisation of ideas inseminated by ClueTrain 11 years ago ...

Written by John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, and Lang Davison who form „The Center for the Edge” of the famous consulting giant Deloitte, is the book that is as important as is the „Grundswell”.

So — what is the Pull ?

„Pull is the ability to draw out people and resources as needed to address opportunities and challenges. Pull gives us unprecedented access to what we need, when we need it, even when we’re not quite sure what “it” is.

Pull allows us to harness and unleash the forces of attraction, influence, and serendipity. Using pull, we can create the conditions by which individuals, teams, and even institutions can achieve their potential in less time with more impact than has ever been possible.”

As such, pull is the opposite of push — the ideology of traditional business, organized in top-down manner. „Pull is about expanding our awareness of what is possible and evolving new dispositions, mastering new practices, and taking new actions to realize those possibilities. ”


The great value of the book lies in the very practical approach to the main theme. You can almost find prescription how to create an environment of pull in your company or organisation.

Let me name here just a few of concepts elaborated in this book. First I call triple A path: Access, Attract, Achieve — as the strategy to implement Pull in an institution or in a business. Next would be the need for creation spaces and connection platforms to help serendipity (yes — serendipity) to be a driving force of the organizational change.

The authors deeply analyze how things and ideas that are on the EDGE of the current business can transform it deeply. Disruptive innovation strategy is probably no longer a buzzword for many progressing businesses and organizations.

When it comes to knowledge — they underline the importance of "Tacit knowledge" and passion — and everything they write there about them — is deeply convincing.

The personal profiles used as illustrations to the book are well known — yet when you read about them in the context of "pull" — it is just amazing. For example, the way Shai Agassi transformed S.A.P. is just breathtaking. Or Yossi Vardi with his deep listening technique.
Or Ellen Levy — just to name a few ....

So — do you know why I call it Cluetrain of the second dacade?
The clue train has arrived, are you going to take the delivery?

The book's website is here.

ClueTrain Manifesto - 10 years after ...

As I promised almost a year ago, I read the new edition of „The ClueTrain Manifesto” issued as 10 years anniversary edition in 2009 with the introduction written by the authors of original Manifesto. This very introduction is exactly what makes this edition so interesting.

Let me however, start with short summary about the original book. When it was first published in 1999 it was like a storm for corporate marketing strategies. Long before Web 2.0, and starting with 95 thesis it predicted the revolution brought about by blogs, forums and all open communication platforms that started to appear.

We were reading it and holding our breaths — it had such a powerful impact. We were almost certain that the ominous slogan: „The end of business as usual” will come true in the next 2-3 years ...

So ... what has happened after these 10 years... Certainly we do not yet see the end of business as usual ... and as one of the authors asked: „Did the original edition of CLUETRAIN commit the Fallacy of Hyperbolic Subtitle?”

As it usually happens, the answer is not straightforward and simple. From one point of view we do have Web 2.0 and socionomics, on the other hand „Huge corporations still stalk the earth. We still report to hierarchical structures that cut us paychecks in exchange for obedience” (DW)

The events of last 10 years show that the path to the new way of doing business is paved with obstacles — and the delicate interplay of successful prophecies with false once is the essential content of the reflections upon the decade after Cluetrain...

If I was to summarize, what are the authors feelings, I would probably say:

David Weinberger — is positive and full of hope and optimism. However his matured optimism knows that we must fight to defend optimism. It is certainly not automatic...

Doc Searls — is positive, but with a grain of salt. He admits the value of growing number of relationships, he sees the potential of his VRM vs. old CRM — yet he admits that „attention economy” still grows in power — only with changed medium: „Transaction we already have. Conversation we are only beginning too develop. (...) Relationship is the wild frontier. Closed "social" environments like MySpace and Facebook are good places to experiment with some of what we'll need, but as of today they're still silos. Think of them as AOL 2.0”

Chris Locke — seems to be less optimistic. „Between the Bubble and the Towers, business cooled considerably in its fanatical whoring after e-commerce billions”. He mocks of certain events of the decade (like Oprah Winfrey and some of her almost occult programs) . He ends his sarcastic essey by a quote from Bob Dylan song: „Don't follow leaders. Watch your parking meters” :-)

Rick Levine — is perhaps also a bit moderate. „How does it taste”? He asks — because he knows we can't ask such questions easily other the net. While he notices the positives (access, data scale, usability and participation) but as he expresses it: „The details we neglected (in Cluetrain prophecy — note by MS) to address were manifest”. It seems Rick rediscovered the power of physical relations between people — and knows well that this is unattainable in the Web...

So — 100 years later — and we have quite mixed impressions...

And we must fight for optimism...

BTW, the 10 years edition finally explained the name of the original book:

„Doc was reminded of a Silicon Valley company about which a friend had said, „The clue train stopped there four times a day, and they never took delivery” :-)

The inspiration - 10 years of ClueTrain Manifesto

When I first read this book (in fact listened to) it was like a bolt out the blue. It was like revelation of truths that we felt in our veins and bones. It was like all my history of business in the new, communism-free Poland, like our "we web it for you" slogan - suddenly gained justification and explanation.

End of business as usual. People of earth - this is our earth. When we converse, dialog, talk, quarrel, without barriers - we create something.

"Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy" became the motto of my managment style for so many years.

And even the "Demonic Paradox" that has been haunting us for so many years in this part of Europe:

"Although a system may cease to exist in the legal sense or as a structure of power, its values (or anti-values), its philosophy, its teachings remain in us. They rule our thinking, our conduct, our attitude to others. The situation is a demonic paradox: we have toppled the system but we still carry its genes. "

was the part of the message of the book.

Today (via David Weinberger - the co-author of ClueTrain) we welcome the 10-th anniversary edition. There is an event at Berkman Center. While we still must wait till we can buy it at Amazon, there is an interesting discussion going there: what is the difference? How we see ClueTrain after this 10 years....

I will come back to it as soon as I get the "10 anniversary edition" with new chapters and new reflections...

ClueTrain in a new light ...

I read "ClueTrain Manifesto" couple of times since 1999 when the book was first published. And always when I return to it, after some time, it appears to show some fresh aspects, some fresh views. Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls and my favorite, David Weinberger created something worth of return. If you still did not read it - its free: HERE.

If you have no time for the entire book, just read only these: 95 theses ....

My favorite two citations from the book:
"Companies need to realize their markets are often laughing. At them. "
"Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy."

This book is compulsory reading for all sales people in my company ....

See the citation:

"Although a system may cease to exist in the legal sense or as a structure of power, its values (or anti-values), its philosophy, its teachings remain in us. They rule our thinking, our conduct, our attitude to others.
The situation is a demonic paradox: we have toppled the system but we still carry its genes. "

Ryszard Kapuscinski, Polish journalist, 1991

Doubt it's still true? Look arround - Think about it ....