Manifesting

One of the most important things we can do, at work and in life, is to demonstrate clearly who we are and what we stand for. To manifest is one of the strongest and also most vulnerable things we can do as human beings.

And so I want to make you aware of ChangeThis, a group of volunteers from CEO Books who publish manifestos free and freely share them with the online community. Their mission is to be a conduit for ideas about business, culture, politics, technology — whether they agree with the ideas personally or not. To help those ideas reach the world, where they will survive or not. The emphasis is on reaching the community, not controlling it. Manifesting their commitment to freedom of ideas by publishing manifestos: meta-manifesting, if you will, and I like it.

Anyone can submit a proposal. Anyone can vote on whether a manifesto should be published. ChangeThis publishes those with the most votes in PDF version, hosts them for download, and spreads them far and wide through a subscription network.

I want to be a part of this, so I’ve submitted a proposal to publish A Leader’s Manifesto. Publication is determined by online community vote: the manifestos that most people want to see will be published and distributed.

I’m excited about this possibility for A Leader’s Manifesto. It would be great to have a professional, downloadable, easily sharable version of the manifesto that people could read at their own convenience and easily store/retrieve. If you’ve read the manifesto and like the ideas, and would like to help it reach a wider audience, please vote for it at ChangeThis.com.

And take a look while you’re there at the other proposals up for consideration. Read some manifestos — a couple of my favorites are How To Be Creative by Hugh MacLeod and The Connection Culture by Michael Lee Stallard. Sign up to be notified of new manifestos. And if you’ve got something to share, submit a proposal and share your ideas about how to make things better.

The new model of work and life that we’re moving into is more about free exchange than about “transaction.” ChangeThis does all their work for free — a labor of love and community — and that’s part of what I hope you’ll support.