One of the challenges I have is finding enough time each day to read. This means that a book like Trust Agents, which would take the casual reader a couple of weeks to read, takes me about three months.
Chris Brogan and Julien Smith aren’t just two people capitalizing on the the trend of pumping out books on the social web and digital engagement. They’ve been living the principles behind their book since before Twitter. They’ve blogged, podcasted and presented their ideas for years which has created a following large enough to have made Trust Agents a New York Times Bestseller in the first week following its release this past August.
To make their ideas accessible, Chris and Julien have broken up the concept of being a trust agent into six components:
- Make Your Own Game
- One of Us
- Archimedes Principle
- Agent Zero
- Human Artist
- Build an Army
They use stories to map out relationships between social media, real life and pop culture to add depth to their ideas. I particularly like the way they stretch your thinking at various points in the book rather than serve you the obvious.
Readers of Trust Agents who are new to world of social media and whohave picked up the most highly recommended of these books may think very little overall has actually happened since case studies like Dell Hell keep coming up. We really need a new batch of stories so we need more people sharing them — something Chris and Julien ask people to do by sending their trust agent stories to stories@trustagent.com.
My biggest takeaway from the book was being introduced to a basic theory of improvisational comedy: “Yes, and…”. I love this idea for three main reasons:
- “Yes, and…” speaks to the importance of being curious, creative and adaptable, forcing us out of critical thinking and into creative thinking and collaboration.
- “Yes, and…” reinforces the idea that we need to look beyond our own domains of specialty/interest and spend more time studying what other people do and how they do it, then figure out how to make it our own.
- “Yes, and…” abandons the word “but” which is routinely used and defended even thought it puts an exclusive spin on one end of a statement. “Yes, and…” recognizes both realities co-exist and then seeks to make progress.
This, of course, means that I have yet another book to read — Improv Wisdom by Patricia Ryan Madson. It looks like 2010 is going to be a read-y one for me.
And… while we’re on the subject of reading outside your domain of specialty for inspiration and ideas, I recommend the following books:
- Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art by Stephen Nachmanovitch (I particularly like the story about sameness brought about by institutionalized thinking on page 115)
- Thinkertoys: a handbook of creative-thinking techniques by Michael Michalko
- Zen Guitar by Philip Toshio Sudo (while the book is rooted in musical pursuits, it’s easy to apply Philip’s ideas in any creative pursuit)
