I get the feeling that this is supposed to be a highly inspirational TED Talk, but for me, it falls flat. However, I could just be in a bad mood as I’m writing this. Part of the problem is that the organization is lacking. Godin goes from point to point without much connection between many of them. Another part of the problem is that Godin seems to think that people in general try to change things. My experience, or perhaps my cynicism, tells me the opposite. People are generally more inclined to fight change than embrace it. People who seek and work for change are rare.
In the SPCA example that he uses to support his apparent argument that people seek change, the details of the story more strongly support the counter argument that people fight change. Godin tells us how Nathan Winograd and his boss at the SPCA had to fight to get a change in how stray animals were handled in San Francisco. People from other SPCAs and humane shelters were willing to fly to San Francisco to fight against this change. People in general resist change. Change happens when a person or small group are willing to go all out fighting for it.
The San Francisco SPCA was only able to focus on making San Francisco a no-kill city after giving up their existing animal control responsibilities. If you look at this timeline at Best Friends, you’ll see that it took Rich Avanzino (Winograd’s boss) 10 years and surrendering animal control responsibility the Department of Animal Care and Control that had to be formed due to Avanzino ending the SPCA’s contract with the city (with 5 years notice), to make San Francisco a no-kill city. It actually took five years beyond when San Francisco SPCA handed animal control over to the Department of Animal Care and Control for them to establish an adoption pact with the city run service to make San Francisco a no-kill city.
Their efforts and dedication are admirable, but I think they make an excellent example of how fiercely people resist change. This is clearly not the point he’s trying to make.
Watching again for the third or fourth time, I think that he might have made a stronger argument if he somehow made it clear that he told the SPCA story at the beginning to demonstrate how much harder it was to connect with people and encourage them to embrace change prior to the explosion of social media. Then again, he didn’t mention how long it took for Winograd and Avanzino to bring about the change they fought for. Godin probably intended that first example as support for his arguments about connection and tribes.
I do agree with the argument that tribes and the human drive to connect are the way to change the world, although I didn’t feel that Godin supported it very strongly with his talk. Godin seems to alternate between providing examples of connection and providing examples of leaders. He doesn’t link the examples together very well in the structure of his talk, and this makes his call to action at the end weaker than it could have been.
I can't disagree with you. People tend to resist change. Take, for example, the latest presidential debacle. There is this claim that voting in Trump represents change but the reality is far more subtle and sobering. A huge reason for his win was disenfranchised DEMOCRATS in heavily union blue collar areas wanting to get their coal mining jobs back, largely because of an unwillingness to retrain for other jobs. These folks don't realize or don't care to pay attention to the fact that coal ISN'T coming back; it's too expensive to produce when there are much cheaper energy alternatives out there, such as natural gas, oil and (increasingly) cheaper renewables. That's not change; that clinging to the past.
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