Infrequent Frequency

Last week, I talked to my graduate students about finding their frequency.  We were discussing Steve Farber's book, Radical Edge, and the importance of knowing yourself before you can lead others.

I played the Christine Kane song, "What the hell am I doing with my life?" for them.  (By the way, Christine Kane is one of the best story-tellers I've ever met.  If you want an amazing experience, get her live performance CD, A Friday Night in One Lifetime.  You'll enjoy it immensely.  I received a free copy at SOBCon and have been listening to it almost non-stop this month.  Who knew that her songs make such a great graduate teaching tool?!)  Out of a class of 28, there were only two students who were in that sweet spot between expertise and passion in their job.  The others ranged from uneasiness to uncertainly.  I'm guessing a few were experiencing angst, but doing so quietly.

Why?  Why are we allowing ourselves to stay trapped in jobs we hate?  I'm really curious about this.  In the past two semesters of teaching this leadership class, about 25% of my students have initiated a job search because they realized they weren't living their frequency.

What do you want to be when you grow up?  And are you moving in that direction?

Are you doing what you love?  If not, why not?

Do These Quarterly Measures Make Me Look Fat?

"Only hot guys wait for their wives in places like this."

The text message from my wife was intended to salvage my ego as she went for her THIRD trip to the Ann Taylor dressing room.  And of course, there was a line.  A long line.  She actually made me stand in this line once to save her place while she went on the hunt of an article of clothing.  The women on either side of me weren't sure what to think of this bearish-looking bald guy standing in line to the women's dressing room.  Shannon feigned apologetic just well enough to keep me in the store to do whatever bidding she deemed necessary.

Later, she explained that women's clothing sizes are so inconsistent across clothing makers that it makes it difficult to decide which size to select... hence, the multiple dressing room trips.  An eight in one shop might be a six in another and it could be a twelve somewhere else.  Hmmmmph.  Sounds like some drug-induced new math to me.  We men have it easy.  Waist:  36 inches... which means in other shops... ummm... 36 inches.  Inseam:  34 inches... which translates in other brands... to... uh... (wait, don't tell me) 34 inches.

In our quest to seize the accomplishment, we try to "sell" our ideas with numbers.  Bad numbers.  Irrelevant numbers.  Silly numbers.  But do we think about what we're trying to accomplish with these numbers.  In systems thinking, we talk about feedback loops.  What are the measures telling us about changing the inputs to get better outputs?  Franke James posted a brilliant visual essay about the "real poop on social change" which gets at the heart of this very issue.  Numbers that build awareness aren't enough; numbers have to motivate behavioral changes.  Unfortunately, I don't see the women's clothing industry taking pity on a middle-aged "shopping buddy" husband.  Darn.

My buddy Bob is actually my hero when it comes to interpreting data.  When his wife asked him if "these pants made her look fat," Bob looked her straight in the eye and responded, "No, but your thighs do."  (Bob is miraculously still breathing through both nostrils.)  Still, there may be some wisdom to this as we look at our feedback loops to make changes to our organizational systems.

You Had Me At Below

Have you ever had that "fight or flight" moment at the workplace?  How about that "gotcha" opportunity with a colleague, where you can nail his hide to the wall once and for all?  What about that "irrefutable argument" that nobody would dare to debate?  Or my personal favorite... the "I told you so" dance?

Well, they deserve it, don't they?

Probably (at least in our minds they do).

But...

Think about the downstream impacts of this discussion you're about to have.  You might be winning the battle just to lose the war.  Think about what's going to happen BELOW the surface of your impending conversation.  What might be going through the other person's mind?  What kind of day might they be having?  What other projects or issues are weighing on them?

A former client and current friend told me that his job as an executive forces him to constantly assess these issues when having difficult conversations.  As a matter of fact, it was a discussion we were having recently that inspired this post.  His current role puts him in the position of having challenging talks all the time.  However, he has to weigh the present with the future (i.e., those "downstream impacts" I mentioned earlier).  What kind of relationship will he need to have with that person in the future?  I was reading a story in the paper this morning about Sharon Stone.  For her 50th birthday in March, she performed some spiritual house cleaning and removed all of the relationships that she did not deem beneficial to her.  That may be a little extreme.

Remember:  The outputs from today's conversation may be unwitting inputs to tomorrow's conversation.  Let's just think about what may be working below the surface when our relationships are running as smoothly as they could be, OK?

Reminder: Iowabiz Breakfast Tomorrow

Just thought I'd send out a quick reminder for the Iowabiz breakfast tomorrow morning.  I'll be sharing my talk on project communications, entitled:  What your project team ISN'T telling you.  The event starts at 7:30 AM and runs until 8:30.  You can call 515.313.4646 to RSVP (cost is free).  There will be a drawing for door prizes as well.

It's located at 14001 University Avenue in Clive, IA.

Hope to see you there!

"Key" Issues To Project Scope

(Originally Published On Iowabiz.com In May, 2007)

I have a box of keys at home.  Big keys.  Small keys.  House keys.  Office keys.  Cabinet keys.  Padlock keys.  Keys.  Keys.  Keys!!!!

The only problem is that I have no clue what any of these keys actually unlocks.  Maybe an educated guess at best.  The problem is that I'm unwilling to unload any of these keys because one never knows when a new lock may just appear out of nowhere and need a key.  And - EUREKA - I'm prepared.  Meanwhile, the "key box" takes up real estate in a drawer in our house, and I generally run into it when I'm looking for something else.

Are these keys like some of the projects in your organization?  Are they simply solutions waiting for a problem?  In companies of all sizes, it can become very easy to be enamored by the latest hot software solution du jour.  Some people fall under the spell of evil consultants who make lofty promises.  Worse yet, sometimes we let executives go to the restroom with trade magazines.  They go in seeking a nature call and come out with the latest ad-induced idea, shouting, "Hallelujah!  I gotta get me some of that!"  It doesn't matter what "that" is; they've found a solution and it becomes your issue to retrofit it to a problem.

Think about the projects that your organization is currently tackling.  Can you really name the problem or opportunity that each is intended to solve?  John Dewey once stated that "a problem well defined is a problem half solved."  Yet how many of your projects are simply keys without locks?  Here is a quick and easy test:  How many of your so-called problem statements start with the words "we need" or "we have a lack of"?  If so, you've probably defined a solution rather than a problem.  Case in point, if your problem statement is "We need a new computer system," what is the solution?  (No peeking.)  Yup, you guessed it.  I have a two-year-old here at home who is excellent with asking "why" questions.  I'm thinking of asking her to subcontract to me, so I can assign her to the clients who cannot define a good problem statement.  If you ask "why" enough times, you'll get to the root cause of the issue.

Why should you as a small business owner or employee care about this?  Good question.  As somebody who probably has limited resources, you don't have the time or money for people to be running down rabbit holes after half-baked ideas.  (If you do have people with ample time on their hands, send them over to my house and I'll let them find the locks to all my extra keys.)  The trick to avoiding the key-without-a-lock project is to write a brief yet solid business case before approving the idea to become a project.

This is more than just an academic exercise.  In my book, Race Through The Forest - A Project Management Fable (Tiberius, 2006), I recommend a simple approach to documenting a business case.  Because the business case is the "senior artery" that carries information and decision-making ability to the entire project life cycle, it's also a great way to remember the content of your business case:

• Stakeholders - list those people who might or should care about this project
• Rationale - document a compelling reason (problem or opportunity) for undertaking this project
• Alternatives - list feasible options for addressing the problem or opportunity
• Recommendation - choose which of the alternatives is the best solution
• Timeline - lay out the high level milestones for completing this project (with specific dates)
• Estimates - set expectations about the amount of effort it will take to complete the project
• Risks - consider the main things that could go wrong (either by undertaking the project or staying with the status quo)
• Yes/No Decision - even if it's just a contract with yourself, document the approval to proceed.

Don't trick yourself into thinking you have to write a 150-page dissertation for your business case.  After all, you are a small business owner who is strapped for time.  You'll know when you have enough documented to justify it in your own mind.  Some of the best business cases I've seen were under five pages.  Taking this simple step should help you get rid of those keys without locks, and help ensure that you are spending your time and resources on the truly critical problems or opportunities within your organization.

Carpe Factum!!!

Projects As Hurricanes: A Lesson in Estimating

(Originally Published on Iowabiz.com in June 2007)

It's hurricane season, and here in Iowa I feel safe and snug dealing with the occasional tornado watch and the even more infrequent tornado warning.  I'm always fascinated with the process of tracking hurricanes and, being a Weather Channel junkie from time to time (my wife teases because I know all of the meteoroligists names and that I consider Jim Cantore one of my heroes), I can glue myself to the television whenever a big storm is brewing.  To me, that's real news.

Now, imagine if the folks at NOAA placed one of our "typical" corporate executives in charge of their hurricane center.  I can just hear the conversation now:

Executive:  Jenkins, I see there's a new hurricane forming.

Jenkins:  Yes sir, it's just a tropical depression off the coast of Africa right now, but we'll see how it develops.

Executive:  Screw that namby-pamby generality stuff, Jenkins!  I want to know how strong it will be, exactly where it will hit, and when.  Ever since Katrina, our stakeholders are demanding better information sooner, and you know it.

Jenkins (blinking in disbelief):  But, sir... the fact is that we just don't know all of that information yet.  There are too many variables affecting each storm.  Jet streams.  Air currents.  Pressure fronts.  There's no way...

Executive (interrupting):  You will get me that information by close of business today, Jenkins.  And you'd better be right.  Your job is riding on it.  Now go!!!

Sigh.  We think it sounds ridiculous, right?  After all, we all understand the "cone of uncertainty," and we allow the meteoroligists some degree of latitude over the course of a few days and several thousand miles to provide us with the best information known to date.

Estimating is one of those thorns in the side of project managers and project stakeholders alike.  As a project manager, I understand that there are variables that can affect any given task.  There are risks that can undermine even the best-laid plans.  There are assumptions that need to be made about how long something will take.

A couple of months ago, James Sawyer, a Senior Analyst with TranSystems / Automation Associates, Inc. posted this about estimating in his blog.  Here's an excerpt from his thoughts:

As we get more and more experienced, we're supposed to get better and better at the accuracy of estimating our tasks. But bad things can and do happen during the course of a project, and our estimates don't always line up with what it takes to do the work in reality.  This can be frustrating for us and for the PM, especially when it starts blowing the budget. But why does it happen?  Maybe it's not just that we're horrible estimators (though all of us need to continue to improve in this area), but that there's something inherently funky about the act of estimating itself.

I think Mr. Sawyer hit on the key issue:  ESTIMATES ARE NOT REALITY.  They should not be treated as such.  They are important, and they do constitute the lifeblood of the project's cost and duration and resources needed.  However, they should be drawn in sand rather than cast in cement.  Based on my own experiences (as well as advice shared by trusted colleagues), here are my top 10 tips for estimating:

1. Estimating is a team sport - do no rely on an estimate given by only one person.  Do a Google search, talk to similar professionals, and ask intelligent questions.
2. Estimates improve as time progresses - revisit your estimates on a regular basis.  As you learn more, you may be able to provide better data to reset expectations.
3. Do not punish bad estimating - instead, learn from inaccurate estimates.  Why were we so far off?  What didn't we know that we should have known?
4. Document assumptions - undocumented assumptions resurrect later as excuses.  If you know that an estimate is only true if certain conditions exist (e.g., on-time delivery), then write that down.  It gives you more credibility if the assumption was violated than it does if your estimate was wrong.
5. Identify risks - new technology, new processes, and inexperienced team members can all affect an estimate.  Make sure you go into your estimates with your eyes wide open.
6. Apply contingency according to risk - avoid the urge to add 50% across the board.  Look at each task individually in light of #4 and #5, above.  Those tasks or resources that have more assumptions and risks associated with them should be given more contingency time and cost.
7. Sometimes a SWAG is OK - for those not familiar with the term, SWAG stands for Silly Wild-A**-Guess.  And there will be times when that is the best answer until additional information becomes available.  While there are tools such as PERT to help you, occasionally the best estimates come from the gut.
8. Estimates are more about communication than math - in reality, setting and sticking to a budget is often-times subordinated to ensuring that expectations are set (and reset) appropriately and that key stakeholders are not blindsided.
9. Obtain signoff on estimates from resources - make sure that the resource working on the task agrees with the estimate allotted for that task.  If they don't agree, you're just setting them up for failure.
10. Look at the big picture of the whole project - if your individual task estimates are off, but your project concluded within a reasonable time frame, celebrate the accomplishment.  As discussed in #3, punishment does nothing to improve estimating skills.  Use it as a learning tool for next time, but let the team know how proud you are that the project completed. 

Estimating is only a fraction of the activity which a project manager performs.  Don't misunderstand me; it's an important aspect of project management.  It is not, however, the only aspect of project management.  Following the tips above should make it a slightly easier task.

Carpe Factum!

Put Eeyore To Work

(Originally published in Iowabiz.com in May 2007)

We've all seen them.  We call them devils' advocates or naysayers.  We joke about their constantly negative disposition behind their backs.  We cringe when they are invited to brainstorming sessions.  We try to work around them because we know they will kill the idea with a litany of reasons why it won't work.

What do you do when Eeyore is on your project team?

There is actually a very good role for the project stakeholders who are all too willing to tell you why your project isn't a good idea:  put them in charge of risk management.  Managing risks is an activity that too many project managers let slip through the cracks.  They don't like to think that something might go wrong on their watch, and so they try to ignore all of the speedbumps and potholes in the road... until it's too late.

Oh, bother.

That's where the resident Eeyore is of value.  This is a person who will tell you what can go wrong, why it will go wrong, when it will go wrong, and exactly how it will go wrong.  Instead of avoiding Eeyore, harness all of that great negativity in the planning phase of your project.  Eeyore is now happy, because somebody finally listened to him.  You can be happy, because many of the potential pitfalls of your project have been identified and you can deal with them proactively.  Your team is happy because Eeyore has the negativity out of his system (it's been documented, right?), and they can all move forward.

See?  In projects, there's generally a role for everybody.

The Triple Restraint

(Originally Published On Iowabiz.com in May 2007)

Some of you may be saying, "Um... Tim... are you sure you don't mean the triple CONSTRAINT?  You said 'restraint.'  I think you got that wrong."

To which I answer:  nope.  I meant it.  The triple RESTRAINT.  The triple constraint, as many of you are already aware, is the core principle of project management.  It's the good-fast-cheap-choose-two mindset.  It means that something's gotta give.  Good project managers can generally manage to one of the three:  schedule, scope, or resources.  Excellent project managers more often than not can manage to two of the three.  Very few can give their clients everything they want without altering the space-time continuum (and then being selfish enough not to share their advanced physics knowledge with the rest of us... GRRRR).

The point of this is that we all recognize that there has to be a trade off.  For many small businesses, that trade-off comes in the form of time or money.  Show me a small business owner who says she or he has more than enough of either of these, and I'll show you a small business owner who is probably stagnating and/or is in denial.  Hence, scope and quality get short-changed. 

Regardless of the size of your business, you have to identify two things:  which constraint absolutely cannot budge regardless or circumstances (e.g., we absolutely have to open our new store in time for the summer season) and which constraint has the most give (e.g., spend as much as you need to in order to get it right).  The problem falls with the latter:  we never identify the flexible constraint.  So all three become a RESTRAINT such that NOTHING moves forwared or gets done.  By demanding that all three are managed to unrealistic expectations, you've just bound (and gagged) your project stakeholders.  And you've inadvertantly created a culture where bad news will not be shared (and believe me, there will be bad news).

So before you undertake your next major project for your small business, take out a piece of paper and draw a triangle.  Label your schedule, your resources, and what you need to do.  And then think ahead to that inevitable point in the project when push comes to shove.  And figure out what absolutely cannot give.  And then drink a healthy dose of the humility-reality cocktail to figure out what must give for the project to move forward.  See?  You're already half-way to becoming a better project manager.

Carpe Factum!!!

Whew!

It's finals week at Drake, which means one thing:  grades are due.  I just submitted the last set of grades today online, and handed back materials to the undergrads who bothered to come to class tonight.

Thursday morning bright and early, I leave for New England.  I'm going to be doing a little executive retreat facilitation, balanced with a whole lot of resting and relaxing and taking in all that I can in Massachusetts, New Hampshire (and possibly Maine and Vermont).

I hope you all don't mind, but I'm not going to think about blogging the next few days.  I've set up a few of my former Iowabiz posts to pop up each day for your reading pleasure.  For those of you who have followed Iowabiz faithfully, I apologize for the repeats.  For some of you, this will be new material, so enjoy it.

Next week, I will be speaking at the final Iowa Biz breakfast on Wednesday, May 21 at 7:30 at the NCMIC/PSIS building in Clive.  I'll be sharing some insights about project communication.  Admission is free, so please feel free to come and attend.

Have a great weekend everybody!  I know I will!

Office Politics and the Project Manager

Originally Published at Iowabiz.com in January, 2008

You are a project manager.

You have a project you want done.

You've made assignments and set the vision.

So why isn't anything happening?  It might be that your organization is a victim of office politics, a case of passive-aggression in your company.  I've written numerous articles on my blog about office politics, and many people have used GUST in their career planning strategies.  Want to read more on the subject?  Check out www.office-politics.com.

The one constant problem with office politics is that 1) most people start the conflict themselves without realizing it and 2) most people don't realize that they are involved in a game until it is too late.  Celine over at the Pimp Your Work blog shared a great post about what to do when your team loses.  Office politics can cost your company thousands of dollars, and when it rears its ugly head on your projects, Celine shares some things to do to help your team cope:

• Keep your spirits up
• Find out what you could've done better
• Show appreciation for everyone's efforts
• Focus on how well the team worked
• Look forward to the next challenge

As the business owner, if you have control over the circumstances that caused the loss, there are some additional things I'd like to suggest for you to do to mitigate the issue:

• Determine the motives of the perpetrators - it may be that the office politics prevented you from doing something really stupid.
• Figure out what can be salvaged - did office politics completely undermine your project?  Can anything be saved?
• Establish safeguards for the future - determine how to leverage accountability to ensure that accomplishment can still occur.  Remove those who prevented your success earlier.

Carpe Factum!

Frankenstein's Cubicle

Do you know who Bob Probst was?

Any guesses?

You may not like the answer.  Bob Probst is a "reluctant serial killer" of sorts.  Everyday, his creation sucks the souls and life out of countless professionals.  He was the Director of Research for Herman Miller, and (according to a research paper from my students) the man credited with creating the cubicle.  One of the ironies was that he originally called the prototype of the cubicle the "action office."  (OK, you in the 15th cubicle from the window, quit laughing so loudly.  You're disturbing the other 3,957 cubicle-dwellers on your floor.)  The other irony is that Bob spent the rest of his life regretting his creation, stating that he had never wanted the work environment to become hostile because of his creation.

As somebody who strives to seize the accomplishment, I just found this story interesting and had to share it.  For those of you sitting in cubicles right now, please try to find it in your hearts to forgive Bob.  He didn't mean it.  Really.

Y'all Come Back Now, Ya Hear?

Two blogs down, two to go.  OK, nothing like that, but two of the four blogs for whom I write either have ended or will end soon.  A while back, I mentioned I was going to be writing for processgeek.com for Troy Worman.  I exchanged emails with Troy last week about that website's demise.  It appears as though Iowabiz.com is coming to an end as well (change in strategy of our corporate sponsor).  Again, not surprising.  For Iowabiz, I'm actually going to be "recycling" many of my posts over here.  The readership on Iowabiz never really attained the same level as my readership, and (quite frankly) I wrote some pretty good stuff on project management over there, and I'd like to ensure it lives on somewhere.

In the process of "harvesting" my posts and migrating them from Iowabiz over to draft form in Carpe Factum for future publication, I started thinking about some of my own older work here on this site.  Posts I wrote months ago that were also "pretty good stuff" but never seemed to get much traction.  So I'm proposing a blogospheric recycling meme (besides, it's been a while since somebody did one of those annoying meme posts).

The question is this:  If I could select my top 5-10 posts which received little to no attention, what would they be?  So here are my top 10 never-been-commented-on-but-should-have blog posts (in no particular order):

1. Naming Conventions Gone Awry
2. Who Wrote That Autobiography Anyway?
3. Some Assembly Required... Or Else!
4. Is Your Rule Breaker Like Herbie or Christine?
5. What's Your Happy Fun Ball?
6. Multi-taskers: Take a Licking
7. Sure, It's a Pile
8. Friends, Romans, Countrymen:  Lend Me Your Rears
9. Racing Against Phantoms
10. Project Hokey-Pokey

So, I now tag Tammy Lenski, Chris Brown, Liz Strauss, Scot Herrick, and Phil Gerbyshak... what are your most under-appreciated posts?

Accomplishing Adventure

With the impending release of the new Indiana Jones flick coming up, I've been thinking a lot about adventure.  You know, the stuff you dream about when you're staring at the umpteenth spreadsheet in your gray cubicle.  What is your fantasy adventure?  OK, now what is your REAL adventure?  Your career adventure?  Your life blood adventure?

This past year has been an adventure for me.  I've traveled across the US speaking to some outstanding audiences and meeting some amazing people.  I've embedded myself into a SWAT team to research a book.  And I've helped launch the adventures of my students (which is what prompted this post).

In the leadership class I've taught this year at Drake, between 20-25% of my students have initiated a job change of some kind.  Some of them have quit their jobs outright, not quite knowing what their next step is but knowing that the current one was dead wrong for them.  I recently received an email from a student who came to the realization that she was not in love with her job.  Now, you may think that's an unrealistic expectation for anybody to have, but I would disagree with you wholeheartedly.

For the past three years, I've been haunted by the words of Steve Farber:  "Do what you love in the service of those who love what you do."  I can't seem to get those words out of my head.  It's the main reason I assigned his books to my leadership students (and probably the real reason why many of them are seeking their own great adventures).  When I create my task list in the morning, those are the words that serve as my Litmus Test for accomplishment... for love... for adventure.  I'm no longer "Tim Johnson - Consultant"; I'm the explorer in "Iowa Johnson and the Project of Doom"!  Numerous people have come up to me this past year with one common statement:  "It's so obvious that you love what you do."  Yeah, I do.  And it's a romance that I hope carries me to my dying day.

What about you?  Are you in love with your job?  Are you having an adventure?

Are You Flushing Your Message?

This past weekend at SOBCon, Kristen King advised us all (via Twitter) of an interesting issue.  There was a placard in the women's restroom advising people to turn off their lavalier microphones BEFORE using the facilities.  Sage advice.  The only problem was that the sign was posted on the inside of the bathroom door, so people didn't see it until exiting.  (By the way, thanks, Kristen, for humoring me by taking my camera into the women's room to capture this phenomenon... evidently the men in Chicago don't make this faux pas.)

Are you giving people warning messages at the right time and in the right way?  Are you posting the messages WHERE they'll see them and WHEN they'll need them?  I've seen too many professionals who "conveniently bury" critical messages.  I've seen others who have ignored those same messages.  So, how can we communicate better?

Before you deliver a message, use the military approach of HUA:

• Will the recipient HEAR the message?  How can I make them listen to it?
• What can I do to make them UNDERSTAND the message (both the content and the importance)?
• In what ways can they convey their ACKNOWLEDGMENT of the message?

And turn off your microphones in the restroom... PLEASE!

SOBCon08: Final Photo Mash-Up

Here are the final pictures from the conference this weekend.  Say what you want about blogging, it all boils down to people.

Dawud Miracle is one of the nicest guys on the blogosphere... and was born into a super-cool name that just destined him for greatness.

Joanna Young came all the way from Scotland... it was definitely "worth the trip" for all of us to meet her in person.

Stephen Smith AND Thomas Clifford in one picture!  Solar Powered Blogging Machines!!!  (Too bad we couldn't get Adam Kayce and Sim Margolis in the photo, also.)

Tammy Lenski and Chris Brown are two very bright and extremely pleasant ladies.  It's been an honor to get to know them over the past several months.  Time spent on their blogs is time well spent.  (And Tammy had a black-and-white Shih-Tzu also!)

Starbucker!  DUDE!

Wendy Piersall gives the best hugs of anybody.  I have about 362 days of withdrawal.

Summarizes what we bloggers are really all about.  Why we do what we do.  Why we come together to encourage each other and learn from each other.

Thanks, everybody, for an awe-inspiring weekend!!

SOBCon08: Saturday Recap

Great sessions yesterday.  One thing about social media that I value is that there's always something new to learn.  I appreciate that there are some amazing people who are willing to share their insights and expertise with us.

After Anita's great kickoff, we learned from Brian Clark about the importance of the three phases of blogging:  attention, authority, and acceleration.  Awesome!

Another valuable session was Chris Brogan, who is a phenomenal speaker (I'll be posting a LinkedIn recommendation for him in the near future).  His speech about pirates and passion was real and heart-felt.  After all, in the blogosphere, it really does boil down to people.

We ended the day with excellent talks from Liz Strauss herself as well as Wendy Piersall, whose story can penetrate the heart of even the crustiest blogger.

Last night was perfect for a gathering of bloggers at the Emerald Loop.  Now it's Sunday morning, and we'll be wrapping up.  More to come.

SOBCon08: Anita Bruzesse

Great kick off for a Saturday morning!  The very talented Anita Bruzesse, nationally syndicated columnist for Gannet News Service and USA Today, presented a powerful reminder for managing online reputation.  Her points were spot-on:

1. What sources do you use for your information?  Can you guarantee that it's correct?
2. Who is the source of your information and why are they sharing it?
3. Is the information credible?  How do you know?
4. Are you being fair?
5. How will you respond when you make a mistake?
6. What will be your response when someone criticizes or attacks you?
7. What comments will you ban and how will you encourage worthwhile comments?
8. How will you have an ongoing evaluation of your reputation?
9. What is your line in the sand?
10. Will you stand the test of time?  How

All wonderful reminders, Anita!  Thanks for sharing them with us.  We bloggers need to be held to the same standards as other journalists.  (P.S.  Read her book:  45 Things You Do That Drive Your Boss Crazy)

SOBCon08: Separated at Mirth

I often joke that I've been so busy that I meet myself coming and going.  In that same vein, some kind of cosmic kismet (which is just fun to say) has occurred here at SOBCon08.  I've met my twin.  Yeah, yeah, I know.  We bald guys with goatees all look the same to you follicled people.  But this is just weird (in a good way).  I met Stephen Smith yesterday.  OK, we're actually a couple of years apart in age.  In addition to the similar appearance (and height, and body build), we use the exact same phone, use the same brand of camera, and have the same frightening sense of humor.

Someone once told me, "When they made you, Tim, they broke the mould.  And then they beat up the mould-maker and banished him from society."  (It was meant as a compliment, I'm sure.)  Well, the mould maker returned with a vengeance.

SOBCon08: First Night Recap

SOBCon08 does not disappoint.

Of course, what would any blogging event be without Phil?

Christine Kane kicked off our river cruise with some songs... wow, she's great!

Director Tom Clifford, Colleen Wainwright, and Dawud Miracle hang out on the top deck, enjoying the view of the Chicago skyline and and the great company.

Chris Cree prepares to hand out Klondike bars (private joke of those who attend open mic night).

More to come as the weekend progresses.

Chicago Bound

Final packing - check.  Laptop in bag - check.  Extra copies of GUST tucked away (just in case) - check.  Picking up Pete and Erik - check.  Planning on having the best time of my blogospheric life - CHECK, MATE!

I'm headed to SOBCon!

(Expect some "live blogging posts from the event.)

UPDATE:  Made it safely.  Lots of rain storms on the way (or, as Erik calls them, "pockets of joy").  Pete is still trying to figure out what the heck "telegrouting" is.