THANKS SO MUCH!
Great stuff to share this issue!
As we reach year-end, I want to sincerely thank you my regular readers for being here. We are all very busy, and it means a lot that you found value here. This newsletter is going through major changes (hey – aren’t we all?) and our 2012 issues will sport a slimmed down format with punchier content. This particular issue is a “tweener” – so some of the standing sections may be empty as we make the transition.
ABOUT TO GIVE BIRTH
Men can’t experience the joy of childbirth, but we all can experience the joy that comes with bringing a wonderful idea to life. The closest I’ll ever come to birthing is happening this week. I’ve spent the last six months laboring to bring the Strategic Planning Academy (SPA) to life. This comprehensive online academy will be the first to teach the skillset and mindset all knowledge workers like us need to thrive in these fast-paced times, as well as prepare them for professional certification.
Please check out the new website (CLICK HERE). Sign up for three content-rich and very entertaining videos there on strategic planning. You’ll learn something and have fun too!
FUNNY VIDEO
Without a healthy sense of humor, you would have abandoned this newsletter long ago. Well, I’ve taken that humor in new directions – videos. Please check out “Strategic Planning Tips from the Strategy Dog”, featuring my own dog Mushka explaining the origin of his superpowers and singing a unique strategic planning song. For a hearty laugh, review and give it a LIKE because it’s entered this in a contest sponsored by the Association for Strategic Planning.
MORE LESSONS LEARNED VIDEOS
Thanks for the great feedback on my video series on COMMON STRATEGIC PLANNING MISTAKES. Here are two more that tackle frequent mistakes, along with tips to avoid them.
Mistake #8: Not Involving the Right People
Our BOOK OF THE MONTH features a hot off the press new edition of the selling project management book. I’m especially proud that the author asked me to write a chapter featuring the Logical Framework approach.
In LAUGH OUT LOUD, You think MY writing is bad? Check out more winners from an annual bad fiction contest.
Here are encores of some of our most popular LogFrame topics. If you haven’t viewed these, see what you can learn from them.
Starting a Project Management Office
Improving Effectiveness of a Non-Profit Board
Eric Verzuh’s book The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management is consistently one of the top 5 best selling books in the project management genre. His latest (fourth) edition was just released, and I’m proud as a pup with a new collar to have guest-written a chapter on the Logical Framework Approach.
The most essential part of a project occurs during the initiation and planning phase; what I call the “fuzzy front end”. Eric has called the Logical Framework “a stellar performer” which helps at this stage. So if you already use the LogFrame tool – and many of you do – you are ahead of the pack as this tool is becoming mainstream. Check out Eric’s book, it is very readable pages with great case studies, stories, and examples.
Fast-Forward MBA Project Management
Here are more winners from the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest:
Winner: Fantasy
Within the smoking ruins of Keister Castle, Princess Gwendolyn stared in horror at the limp form of the loyal Centaur who died defending her very honor; “You may force me to wed,” she cried at the leering and victorious Goblin King, “but you’ll never be half the man he was.”
Terri Daniel Seattle, WA
Winner: Historical Fiction
Napoleon’s ship tossed and turned as the emperor, listening while his generals squabbled as they always did, splashed the tepid waters in his bathtub.
John Doble New York City
Runner-up:
The executioner sneered as the young queen ascended the stairs to the guillotine; in the old days, he thought, at least there was some buildup, a little time on the rack or some disemboweling, but nowadays everyone wants instant gratification.
Andrea Rossi Wilmington, NC
Winner: Purple Prose
As his small boat scudded before a brisk breeze under a sapphire sky dappled with cerulean clouds with indigo bases, through cobalt seas that deepened to navy nearer the boat and faded to azure at the horizon, Ian was at a loss as to why he felt blue.
Mike Pedersen North Berwick, ME
LaTrina—knowing he must live—let her hot, wet tongue slide slowly over Gladiator’s injured ear, the taste reminding her of the late June flavor of a snow chain that had been removed from a tire and left to rust on the garage floor without being rinsed off.
Betsy Replogle Nichols Hills, OK
Like a bird gliding over the surface of a Wyoming river rippled by a gentle spring breeze, his hand passed over her stretch marks.
Patty Liverance Grand Rapids, MI
She held my hand as if she were having a swollen barrel of fun which was off considering that my teeth were sitting on my bathroom cabinet (eight miles away, no less) and my elbow was peeling like a soggy coconut, the fine hairs of which were standing on edge in fear, as if the coconut had been reading “Dracula.”
James Hearn Canterbury, Kent, U.K.
straightened out in time.
D. Drake Daggett Omro, WI
Winner: Sci-Fi
Morgan ‘Bamboo’ Barnes, Star Pilot of the Galaxias (flagship of the Solar Brigade), accepted an hors d’oeuvre from the triangular-shaped platter offered to him from the Princess Qwillia—lavender-skinned she was and busty, with two of her four eyes what Barnes called ‘bedroom eyes’—and marveled at how on her planet, Chlamydia-5, these snacks were called ‘Hi-Dee-Hoes’ but on Earth they were simply called Ritz Crackers with Velveeta.
Greg Homer Placerville, CA
Runner-up:
Sterben counted calcium bars in the storage chamber, wondering why women back on Earth paid him little attention, but up here they seem to adore him, in fact, six fraichemaidens had already shown him their blinka.
Elizabeth Muenster Columbia, PA
Winner: Vile Puns
Detective Kodiak plucked a single hair from the bearskin rug and at once understood the grisly nature of the crime: it had been a ferocious act, a real honey, the sort of thing that could polarize a community, so he padded quietly out the back to avoid a cub reporter waiting in the den.
Joe Wyatt Amarillo, TX
Runner-up:
Monroe Mills' innovative new fabric-dyeing technique was a huge improvement over stone-washing: denim apparel was soaked in color and cured in an 800-degree oven, and the company's valued young dye department supervisor was as skilled as they came; yes, no one could say Marilyn was a normal jean baker.
Marvin Veto Greensboro, NC
Dishonorable Mentions:
Convinced that the fabled Lost Treasure of Eggsbury was concealed within the statue of the beloved Sister Mary Francis in the village square, Professor Smithee would steal away in the darkest hour of each night to try to silently chip away at her impervious granite vestments – a vain and fruitless nightly exercise, he well knew, but it was a hard habit to break. Rodney Reed Ooltewah, TN
Milton’s quest for the love of Ms. Bradley was a risk but no sorry trivial pursuit, yet he hadn’t a clue why she had a monopoly on his heart’s desires -- in fact, it boggled his mind and caused him great aggravation because, in his checkered and troubled careers, he had always scrabbled hard and it drove him bonkers that she considered life just a game.
Linda Boatright Omaha, NE