Friendsourcing

For my new book, Running the Gauntlet, I was looking for advice and information on what it took to be become an agent of change.  I turned to the smartest and most reliable people I know, my friends, and asked them to answer broad questions about being agents of change.  If crowdsourcing is about fast, inexpensive answers, friendsourcing is about trust.

The notion of crowdsourcing may seem like a Web-Age innovation, but it isn’t. Even though the word wasn’t coined until 2006, the practice has been in place for years. One of the most trusted and comprehensive resources in the world, The Oxford English Dictionary, was built largely on crowdsourcing.

Over the past couple of years, friendsourcing has become a more important and effective business trend – I go to my most trusted friends and advisors to find out about something that means a lot to me.

I bet you’ve done a lot of friendsourcing lately, even if you weren’t aware of it. Think about all your friends on the various social networks. Everyday you get multiple messages from them about their favorite burger joint or a hot spot to go on vacation.

When it comes to the truly important decisions that will affect your business and the direction it goes, you can’t rely on the masses to determine your fortune. The reason friendsourcing works is the same reason you chose your friends. They always tell you the truth.