The Work Week Reality
I remember the days when I was doing the hard yards in a big company. Days were long, and the pressure high. I knew that continuous learning was a key factor to climbing that corporate ladder, and to being someone who could create value in the company. And in times of disruptive change, rapid learning could never be more important. I intended to read as much as a I could to cope with the pace of change, but I’d simply be too exhausted to do the required reading at night.
Add to this the time books take to get through, and keeping up becomes a job in itself. The average business book takes more than 6 hours to get through at the average adult reading pace. But like all things in business, there are ways to hack to system. And why read when you can watch instead. Why not turn a 6 hour job into a 1 hour task?
Watching Instead of Reading
Documentaries are rad. Not only because they provide us with super insights and stimulate our thinking, but they cut the time needed to get an understanding on important topics. And there are plenty of documentaries available on the topic of technological and business disruption we can get our eyeballs around. In fact, I’ve created a list below to get your started.
Now it is time to turn your couch into leisure masters University. Below is a list of great documentaries, which give your brain the same imprint of reading a book in one sixth of the time. Here’s a list of doco’s which tell a bunch of different stories of technological and big business disruption, but they all happened to rhyme. A starters guide to industrial disruption.
My Top 7 Documentaries on saving your company
Downloaded: The amazing story of the Napster and music’s move from physical to digital. Watching this you’ll be amazed at how complacent the music industry was, but more than that how inevitable it was. While the music industry won the battle against Napster, they ultimately lost the war against music going digital and being free. A classic example that shows how technology always finds a way, it always wins.
Who Killed the Electric Car: In this one we see how an industrial giant – General Motors – had the potential to lead the world into the electric car era and totally blew it, only to hand it over to Tesla more than 10 years later. What’s interesting is that it wasn’t that they got blindsided by a startup, they just didn’t want to embrace change that they themselves created.
Something Ventured: The story of how Silicon Valley become, well Silicon Valley. Who took the risks, why and how this has reshaped commerce and culture across the globe. Some deep lessons here on how to approach technology for ‘Big Co’.
The Pirate Bay – AFK (Away From Keyboard): This one is a bit like the Napster story all over again… and so the question must be asked: Why don’t content producers make things globally available, in digital format for all, the day of release and give consumers a chance to pay for it? Digital is not going away. Twenty years later and Hollywood is fighting the same losing battle the music industry fought. Digital is inevitable – the tide is rising. It’s always a better strategy to embrace the wave and ride it.
Print – The Legend: A great documentary of the change before it happens. This one is about the future on your doorstep – 3D Printing. It will influence every business, not just those in manufacturing. Just like the internet was far wider reaching than we thought it would ever be in 1999. The only question remaining is what are you gonna do about it? This technology will change the world more than the internet. Learn all about it right now, before it happens, then get involved.
Dogtown & Z Boys: This documentary is about the emergence of skateboarding and it’s subsequent multibillion dollar industry in the 1970’s. This doco is a bit of a different example as it shows how niche pop culture can become incredibly mainstream while no one is watching. A great story of how the sideline can move to the front line. Another reminder that we must be pop culture observers in startup land.
The Rise & Rise of Bitcoin: Welcome to the GFD, not the GFC…. The Great Finance Disruption as I like to call it. Bitcoin has the potential to overthrow the national currency structure and banking system which holds us hostage to the economic doctrine of governments world wide. Bitcoin and the blockchain has the potential to change our financial world from a centralised system of control, to a decentralised democratic one, just like the web. Vital watching.
Do it at home – Do it in the office
If you really care about the company and industry you work for, and care about your economic future, get watching some of those above, and any other business related stories – there’s many more. Your mind and bank account will thank you for choosing a documentary instead of a ‘fake reality TV show’. Get some economic reality instead. While many of us never majored in economics, it turns out that economics is always major.
At your office, make a lunch session of it. Invite people to come into the video room to watch one of these over lunch. See who really gives a hoot about their job and company. If work is too busy, make it a Friday afternoon session with Pizza and beer and get some dialogue going…. See who participates, find out who really cares.