So much to unlearn.

So much to unlearn.

So much of business tells you to exclude yourself from the mix.

RFPs are written from the perspective of some invisible “voice of the company”

Documents are prepared with no voice whatsoever.

You are a cog in the machine, and a cog in the cog.

This works in business because, like any machine, the parts are replaceable.  This is how it’s supposed to be done. We work “to the benefit of something larger,” and drawing attention to oneself is grounds for a stern talking-to about representing the values of the machine.

You are expected to give absolute loyalty to the company, but of course the reverse is rarely true.  After all, machines need cogs to run, but they dont need to be any specific cogs, just ones that will fit the machine.

So much to unlearn.

In developing Deeper Context‘s website and voice, I have a tendency to focus on the product, or the service, or the offering.

I push myself into the background so that I can focus more on the thing that comes out at the end of the conveyor belt, the shiny object.Look at it gleam in the socially-enabled sunlight of a billion MacBooks.

I’m merely a cog in the creation process still, right?

I need to keep myself out of it, lest I draw too much attention away from the machine.

But, it turns out that in reality, I am not a cog anymore. I am the machine now.

I am what will drive interest.

The “key differentiator”, the value, the reason people will choose to partner with Deeper Context isn’t that the end result is good (which it is), or that the shiny objects will build community and empower end users to join the conversation or some such thing.

The key differentiator is me, and the curiosity and humanity I bring to my work.

I’m not the cog anymore.

I am the whole machine.

My talent, interest and unyielding judgmentless curiosity are the cogs.

They cannot and will not be swapped out for a cheaper equivalent.

So much to unlearn.