Ch Ch Changes

Thanks to everyone responding with website comments. Based on your ideas and my objectives for it, look for:

• “Creative Quickies” - brief creativity starters – running Mondays and “Brainzooms” appearing several times monthly as strategic thinking prompts. Shifting toward creativity-oriented material reflects my focus as Jan Harness and I work on a “Creative Instigation” book.


• The “Change Your Character” exercise to stop appearing Wednesdays. Following this week’s exercise and next week’s summary, it will run once or twice monthly.


• Shorter articles.


• Week-long topics to still appear (i.e., the “Get ‘Er Written” week during June). July will have a variation, with Tuesdays starting July 8th focused on strategic thinking styles.


• Guest authors and more variety in communicating content (including first-version looks with original sticky notes, cartoons, and concept sketches).


• Experimenting with brief surveys and other ways to solicit your participation.


• More personal perspectives where it makes sense.

Taking advantage of other ideas depends on your active participation:

• Some suggested topics are outside my areas of expertise or personal passion. Consider this an open invitation to you to create guest articles for the website on these related areas. One suggestion was doing more on strategic games & puzzles, especially related to chess. I’ll follow up with Seth Chapin (who’s been posting great comments on Brainzooming) about some possibilities!


• If you have blogs or other links you find interesting, please send them. Leslie Adams has been great at suggesting intriguing sites. Look for your ideas to appear in future “Surf’s Up” pieces.


• If it’s convenient, sign up for an email of each day’s article (upper left on the page). Provided through Feedburner, you get a daily email, generally by 6:30 am central time. It’s a great way to forward articles to others who might find them of value.


• Whether via email or other means, please suggest the website to others and link to it on sites you visit. This can help build the richness of the discussion for the benefit of you and other readers. Thanks to Amy Hoppenrath for suggesting the blog in answer to a LinkedIn question!

After all that, you’re probably still wondering – who won the book? I decided to give away two, with Seth Chapin and Bob Kizer winning “Why Business People Speak Like Idiots: A Bullfighter's Guide.” Congratulations!