Corporations must make their own Game

Chris Brogan and Julien Smith talk about “Making your own game” in their recently released book Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust. According to Brogan and Smith (2009), “making your own game is not just about trying to find innovating ways to improve your brand or business: It’s about understanding that the tools to let you do this are at your disposal…”

An exercise in the book asks the reader to think about setting new rules and breaking old rules. Gatekeepers=status quo. Gatejumpers = rulebreakers or someone who has found innovative ways to accomplish things outside of the norm. Some examples listed were:

• Radio > podcasters
• Print magazines >blogs
• Microsoft Office > Google Docs

The concept is easy to understand right? I think so.

Tonight I was listening to a podcast, Media Hacks episode 16. If anyone is interested the podcast is available on iTunes for free.

Brogan and Smith participated in the podcast. I found the podcast interesting, but I have to comment about the idea that making your own game in a corporation is hard.

I think everyone would agree that getting an organization to change and be a gatejumper is hard. However, if a gatekeeper does not find a way to be a gatejumper won’t they cease to exist? Microsoft, Yahoo! and AOL are all examples of organizations that must gatejump or eventually cease to exist. The automobile industry is a perfect example of the status quo suffering from not innovating and breaking the rules.

Can one person on the inside of a gatekeeper make a difference? I think so. Isn’t this a key idea in Tribes? Spread your passion with a group and a common leader. The leader could be the innovative person in the gatekeeping organization. The leader might even be the data analyst that just automated a bunch of reports.

I think leader is the key. Innovation is not enough for an individual to change an organization. Breaking rules and innovating is still not enough to change an organization. Someone will need to lead and spread the innovation and passion throughout the organization.

Organizations can not leave this to management. Management is not what organizations need in today's fast paced business world. Organizations need leaders – at all levels. Take risks, failing is ok, learn from the failure and take more risks.

Corporations must make their own game. Will this be hard? Yes, but the alternative is a slow death.

Last night I came across another gatekeeper gatejumper example:

Wii > Project Natel

Project Natel, if successful, is a great example of gatejumping. Can you imagine a gaming system that recognizes you? I can barely imagine a gaming system without controllers? Wow!

What are some of the gatekeeper / gatejumping examples you came up with?