When the hard-shelled nautiloids evolved to abandon their shells to avoid biosonar detection, beaked whales refined their biosonar to echolocate the internal structures of the soft-bodied squid--which then developed survival countermeasures including camouflage, shape-shifting, and ink-cloud diversions. Millennium by millennium, the beaked whales improved their sonar to defeat these escape mechanisms and chase the squid deeper into the canyon. This evolutionary pursuit-and-escape minuet between squid and beaked whales continued for thousands of generations, until the whales could hunt squid at depths of a mile or more—deeper than any other predator.

The opposite of autonomy is control. Control leads to compliance; but autonomy leads to engagement. When people are compliant, they do the absolute minimum that they can get away with. But when people are engaged, they actively take responsibility and contribute more than expected. You pick which destination you like, when you decide between autonomy and control. And don’t get me started on how engagement is the silver bullet to most companies’ problems!

The existing data show that 1 in 9 Americans works in sales. But the new data reveal something more startling: So do the other 8 in 9. They, too, are spending their days moving others and depending for their livelihoods on the ability to do it well. Whether it's selling's traditional form or its non-sales varia-tion, we're all in sales now.