Joe Gerstandt | keynote speaker, freedom fighter, freak-flag flier

RecruitFest was a very cool event to be a part of.  Really.  Uber cool even.  Good stuff, good people, good conversation.  Great planning and coordination.  I am still soaking it all in.  It is a true privilege to spend time with really smart and passionate folks.  It was also a good poke in the brain.

It reminded me that I am part of an activist and aspirational craft.  It helped me remember that I have chosen activist and aspirational work and that I need to act accordingly.

We too often accept the terms of others regarding what is realistic or feasible.  I am bored with realistic.  Realistic never changed anything.  Realistic never fixed anything.  Realistic never inspired or created anything.  Realistic is a dead end.  Feasible is about the past and it is about other people.  Those things are not for us.  The status quo does not need our advocacy…it is going to be just fine without us.  It has all the power of gravity and apathy on its side.  We have to step away from that.

We have to let go of “what is” to think about what could be and what might be.

This always causes friction.

There is a strong desire to focus on the tangibles of the world of work. Inventories. Profits. ROIs. Budgets. Stock prices. Titles. Organizational charts. Tools. Technologies. Policies. Those things matter, I get that.  Profit is mandatory, I get it.  I run a business myself.  I have bills to pay.  I understand the bottom line.

I also think that all of that stuff is of secondary importance.  Yes, profit is mandatory…but to say that business is about profit is like saying that life is about breathing.  Mandatory sure…but the purpose?  Not for me.

I think we tend to focus on the tangibles because we can talk about that stuff without ever telling the truth and without ever owning our gifts and without ever taking any real accountability for what we do together. Tangibles are neat and orderly and they can be stacked and organized and filed.   They are safe.  We can talk about that stuff without ever being fully awake and alive and exposed, without ever talking about stuff that really, really matters.

I think that this is unfortunate.  I think that we miss a huge avenue for pursuing competitive advantage when we do this.

I believe very strongly that culture beats strategy.  I believe very strongly that intangible assets are much more powerful than tangible assets.  I believe very strongly that ecology has to matter before technology can matter.  I believe that work and commerce are uniquely human in nature and that our efforts (intentional or otherwise) to remove the human aspect of work and commerce are violent, manipulative, dishonest and incredibly wasteful.

People like to flag me for playing “buzzword bingo” when I say things like this, but you can hold onto your flag.  I use the words that I use very intentionally and for their specific definitions.

I am not particularly interested in spending our time talking about profits, ROIs, policies and the politics of what is feasible and who knows the truth.  You know why?  Because everyone else on the planet is talking and thinking and worrying about that stuff and I think that you and I can consider other things.

We have other things to talk about because we do work that is fundamentally different in nature.

Sometimes we forget that.

Sometimes we try to so hard to walk and talk like a CFO that we forget we are something completely different and do something completely different.  Business, work and commerce can all happen without policy manuals, the internet, organizational charts, office politics and stock prices.  It cannot and does not happen without human beings.  Not ever. Not anywhere.

That is our work.

Everything else is secondary, and has stewards of its own.

Can you make a profit if you only acknowledge the tangibles?  Can you treat people like and sheep and make money?  Sure?  It is very common actually.  It is the norm.  You do not have to share my perspectives and priorities to do business and make money.  The stuff that I am talking about is what makes you different; it is what puts space between you and everyone else.

Its how you make rock and roll.

Its how you let the dog off the leash.

Its how Stella gets her groove back.

But you already know that.

Be good to each other.