It’s easy to think that we are alone in this world; trapped inside a bag of skin and doing our best to survive. The truth is far more beautiful than that, for we are all profoundly connected with each other and with our environment.
Self Made Myth
We love the idea of the self made man or woman. The idea of the leader or visionary that saw the future and led us all to it. Such people are lauded as heroes in magazines, films and books despite it not being the whole truth.
In his commencement speech at the University of Houston, Arnold Schwarzenegger believes that the idea of the self made man is a myth. None of us can get anywhere on our own. Every person who put him up on their sofa in the early days when he had nothing, everyone who helped him with his training or English or who gave him a break at a different points all contributed to his finding success later in life.
There’s a wonderful image from the movie The Straight Story by David Lynch which really sums this up. The central character, Alvin, recounts how, as a game, he used to give his kids a stick and tell them to break it, which they did easily. He’d then ask them to tie a bundle of sticks together and try and break them. They couldn’t. “That bundle… that’s family” he’d say. To illustrate my point, that’s the power of the group.
As soon as you understand that you got where you are with a lot of help from your groups, you realise that it’s time to help others. Time to work together to build something greater than all of us.
Group Power
I got this a long time ago, which is why I agreed to help the late Lynn Tait with The Ladder Club seminars back in 2004 and have been speaking there for free every year since.
I’ve also been an active member of both the Greeting Card Association (GCA) where I am currently Treasurer and the Giftware Association (The GA) where I will become Chairman this year (I give away 10% of my time each year to helping various groups).
We need groups like these to help our industries thrive, to help those who need to grow and to help those who are less fortunate (through benevolent funds and the like). More importantly, these groups need us. Yet, so often, many of us are pushed for time or strapped for cash and we hold back on getting involved, because we are looking out for our own interests.
Speaking from experience, what’s most interesting is that the more you give, the more you receive. It’s like love, the more you love the more love appears around you in the world. Like the brightest star, loving beings light up the darkness around them. Groups which are full of generosity and giving are like the brightest of galaxies, like a milky way lighting up the sky at night.
It’s the same with teaching: the more we teach, the more we learn (The Roman philosopher, Seneca, observed this almost 2,400 years ago). Every year, after returning from the Ladder Club seminars I say to my team, “OK. These are the words of advice I’ve given others, are we still practising this ourselves? If not, why not?” Every year we improve a little from doing this.
The Protége Effect
Researchers have found that students that tutor others work harder to understand the material, recall it more accurately and apply it more effectively. Scientists have called this the protége effect. Student teachers score higher in tests than those studying for their own sake.
Similar studies have concluded that first-born children are brighter than their later born siblings due to time spent showing them the ropes. Cascading mentoring programs, where students teach others all the way down the education system, can help everyone in groups get smarter as they progress.
These days we are always learning, but are we always teaching too? What are our contributions? Where do we sew what we have reaped?
Online Groups
Social media can feel like busy marketplaces full of noise and shouting, without much listening. For me, one of the most exciting areas of social media has been the groups that I’ve been involved with online: primarily with Facebook and WhatsApp (although I have also tested group tools on LinkedIn, Telegram, Slack and Allo).
Good online groups can be very supportive environments for niche subject areas in order to learn and grow. One of the reasons Ladder Club publishers have been so successful in recent years is the Facebook group that alumni can join for year round support and encouragement. I’ve answered hundreds of questions in this group and it’s so lovely to see how other members (who were previously students) are now answering a lot of questions for others themselves. The group as a whole has grown in strength as a result.
I’ve also been involved in several networking groups on WhatsApp and have developed and grown friendships that have opened all sorts of interesting opportunities, lessons and personal growth over time.
Network Thinking
I’ve written before on the importance of fully understanding Network thinking (which is open, random and supportive) over Institutional Thinking (which is closed, selective and controlling). You cannot be the latter and ignore the former online, especially not in groups. People can sniff out self interest a mile away. Most importantly, it erodes trust. They say of trust that it is won in inches and lost in miles. So take care when building it online.
Building trust through being open, random and supportive takes time. You have to be open to all comers, it’s random so you cannot simply pick and choose who you respond to based on how it will benefit you personally and you have to be supportive of others instead of just looking out for yourself.
It sounds easy when I say it like this, but it takes time to adjust. My friend, Thomas Power, who first articulated this distinction and who spoke on the subject at the GA Members’ Day a couple of years ago reckons it can take up to ten years to make the change from CSC institutional thinking to ORS network thinking.
Practicing Network Thinking
When I first watched Thomas speak on the subject I understood what he meant as I have instinctively operated in a similar way for many years. Last year, I decided to test myself on this to see if I really had the stomach for fully adjusting to it.
Buying and sending other publishers’ cards on The Greeting Card Project felt like madness at times (from the CSC perspective) and yet it was totally essential to encouraging more greeting card sending overall. It would not have worked had I promoted Blue Eyed Sun in the videos.
The experience has completely changed me and how I see greeting cards. It’s opened my eyes to the life of retailers, publishers and card buying consumers.
I want to invite you to join the next stage of this project’s journey so that you can experience all of this too.
Join the Group
The fact is that I can’t continue to do it alone. I’m like the twig on it’s own in the earlier analogy. I’m at breaking point with it and I need your help to grow this project. It was only meant to be for a year, but I feel at over 20,000 views on social media, that this project has some momentum and could help our industry as a whole if more people get involved this year.
It’s too much to ask any one person to continue to make videos every week on card buying and to share them online. Collectively however we could do more as a group. Perhaps not just with videos, but with images and hashtags as well.
So, if you have been at all inspired by The Greeting Card Project last year and want to get involved in sending more cards this year to make it even bigger and better, please join the group at www.Facebook.com/groups/TheGreetingCardProject
Watch The Greeting Card Project Videos