Book Review: Free Agent Nation

Free Agent Nation is primarily designed for the free agent rather than the leader. Let’s put that up front. Still, the book is very useful for leaders for a couple reasons. First, because you might be a free agent yourself, “leading” an ad hoc collection of other free agents, and if you are in this position you will definitely benefit from the book. Second, as a boss in a company you may have contract employees who are free agents, or full-time employees who work in the same style as free agents, and this book will help you understand their perspective. Either way, Free Agent Nation is a good book for you.

Daniel Pink spent a year interviewing people around the US about this increasingly common style of work. Though this leads to an anecdotal, rather than quantitative, research method, once you put enough anecdotes together you can see the trends emerge. Pink discusses the concept of The Organization Man and explains the traditional balance between job loyalty and job security. He goes on to show how both employees and employers have shifted away from that model, and how employees are leading the way to the increasingly popular model of free agency. While we have always had temps, independent contractors, and other free agents in society, the numbers are growing dramatically and their impact on corporate operations is increasing. It is no longer just a matter of calling the local temp agency and getting a substitute for a receptionist who’s out sick…free agents are involved at all levels of the company, in some cases even including the leadership.

If you’re leading your own microbusiness and working with independent experts, or if you are interested in doing something like that someday, this book will set you in the right direction. It explains many of the opportunities that free agency offers and provides some hints on how to take advantage of them. Pink’s use of first person accounts allows readers to more easily see themselves in the same situation and helps them find examples most appropriate for their goals. Perhaps more importantly, he identifies the challenges facing free agents and helps the reader overcome them, seeing them as a challenge to be dealt with rather than a barrier leading to failure.

If instead you are in a larger firm where many of your staff are free agents, this book will still be helpful. Pink examines the motivation and objectives of free agents, helping you understand why they choose this professional path so you can better fit them into your corporate structure. Whether or not to use free agents is an important management decision, so you really need to understand something about these workers if you are going to hire them or if, once you do get them, you are going to make the best use of them.

The book can be a fast read but do not be surprised if you need to refer back to it more than once to soak it all in. For many of us this is a very different way of approaching work, and it takes time and thought to really understand what it is all about. You can check out Free Agent Nation from your library, but maybe you should get your own copy so you don’t rack up a bunch of late fees.