This new book from Behance looks interesting:

Introducing the New Book from Behance & 99%: “Making Ideas Happen” :: Articles :: The 99 Percent

I found that one’s methods for organization are just as important as the quality of one’s ideas. How you manage projects, how (and when) you conduct meetings, how you allocate your time on a daily basis – these seemingly “uncreative” activities matter. I’ll go further: they make a dramatic impact that is often the difference between success and… yet another idea that didn’t happen.

But organization isn’t everything. There are other common themes among prolific creative leaders, notably how they engage their community and how they lead others in creative pursuits. I found that the capacity to make ideas happen could be distilled into a simple framework:

Making Ideas Happen = (Ideas) + Organization & Execution + Communal Forces + Leadership Capability

The methods and practices in each part of the above equation are absolutely essential when it comes to creative execution. Yet nearly all of these activities – perhaps because they come after the “idea” – are vastly undervalued. In fact, many of the forces that are crucial to making ideas happen may seem counter-intuitive at first blush.

Things like acting without conviction, skipping regular meetings, sharing ownership of your ideas, encouraging your team to fight, using appreciations instead of critical feedback, and drawing strength from others’ doubts.

Many of the forces that are crucial to making ideas happen may seem counter-intuitive at first blush.

These and many other surprising insights that emerged have changed the way I work and live my life. Needless to say, the process of writing the book was a 99% case study in itself. During the course of the project, I was able to put many of the insights I was observing into practice.

I have not read the book yet, it will be released on 15 April this year, you can pre-order it here:

From the Groundswell blog, another review of Linchpin:

You need to read Seth Godin’s Linchpin. Or be a cog in the machine. Your choice.

In my mind, one of the most valuable things in this book is a chart on page 181. There are two axes. The x-axis goes from passive to passionate. The y-axis goes from attachment (that is, inflexible dedication to your own world view) to discernment (knowing what to live with and what to seek change in). I would call that y-axis “wisdom”. Seth wants you to aim for the upper left, high passion plus high wisdom, the realm of the linchpin.

From my years of experience working with people, passion is a trait most visible in the young. Wisdom is a trait that is more visible in people who are more experienced. This is why there are so few wise and passionate linchpins. Seth would never be so crass as to typecast people by age, but I know there are plenty of experienced and wise but passive people (he calls them bureaucrats, you know the type) and plenty of young, passionate, and inflexible people (he calls them fundamentalist zealots.) This is why the wise, passionate person stands out.

The real reason I like this book is that after nearly 30 years of work I have arrived in a place Seth would describe as a linchpin and I am loving it. I have always been as passionate and creative as I can, just to amuse myself, why work if it’s boring. This is a childish quality but I retain it at age 51. On the other hand, I have learned some discernment that I sure didn’t have in 1982. Every quarter, my boss (and I have had many) sets goals with me related to what the company needs. At the end of the quarter, often, what I accomplish is very different from what we thought would be useful. But typically, that boss looks at what I did and says “that was what we needed” and rewards me anyway. I cannot be a cog, and fortunately, they have recognized that a cog is not what they need. In the long term, all of my success so far has come from this sort of thinking.

Today is Groundhog Day! (Well, this is being published on 2 Feb, parts of it were written last week, the rest, yesterday)

The formatting of this series of posts will evolve, but for now I am going to start with a review of how well I did at achieving my First Period Goals, then give a brief outline of what I have planned for the Second Period. I am not going to call these review/planning periods “months” or “monthly” because there will only be 11 of them, including the year-end review on 12 Dec.

I am making a promise to myself to be very diligent with my Weekly Reviews, to take careful notes, and to save all of my planning sheets. It is always exciting for me to start a new endeavor, especially one that can be as beneficial as this one. If I maintain my discipline I should be able to have an amazing year.

First Period Review

My goals for the first period were simple and less-than-ambitious:

1. Set goals and milestones for the 2nd – 4th periods of 2010
2. Begin an exercise regimen to maintain my weight-loss from this fall
3. Write a blog post for every weekday
4. Read one book per week
5. Bonus goal: Learn and implement a Personal Kanban system

Goal number 1 we will discuss at the end, as I mentioned, so lets talk about the second – Exercise. I did not do very well. No walking (other than at work) and only did my ‘core’ workouts 2-3 times per week. #fail. I must be more disciplined with this next period.

I did better with writing and publishing blog posts for every weekday, only missed a few. I batched these tasks (thanks WordPress scheduling feature), writing most of the posts on Sundays when I didn’t have to work at the Tavern.

Reading one book per week, well, according to my Reading Journal, I have started The Meaning of Night (novel) and finished Linchpin, The War on Success, and Make Today Count. The novel is pretty hefty, I started it on the 5th and I am about 2/3 done (and really enjoying it). Four weeks, four books, looks good.

The good news is that I have plenty of books to choose from for the next couple of periods, at least!

My bonus goal, Learn and Implement a Personal Kanban System, is well under way. This small change in the way that I administer my Projects and Next Actions has had a tremendously positive impact on my productivity, both at home and at my job. I will definitely be writing more about the Kanban and add it to the Productivity book that I am writing.

(I know, I know, “We don’t need another Productivity book”. Yes. We do.)

Groundhog Day Resolutions for Periods 2 – 4

This is the fun part, where you get to see what I am planning for the next three review periods and then mock me mercilessly if I don’t accomplish these goals (not that any of you would do that, of course).

Period 2 – Due 3 March
Period 2 is going to see a little more ambition, and positive progress on a major goal that has been back-burnered for too long.

1. Maintain exercise program
2. Read 1 book per week
3. Work on the Productivity Book
   • Add Kanban implementation
   • Write Introduction
   • Organize Chapters
   • Create Artwork
4. Staff Evaluations (@Tavern)
5. General’s Club Rollout (@Tavern)

Period 3 – Due 4 April

1. Maintain exercise program
2. Read 1 book per week
3. Create 1 free product (Like the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People in Context)
4. Work on the Productivity Book
   • Write Conclusion
   • Send out for copy-editing
   • Prepare cover art
   • Contact possible reviewers
   • Brainstorm freebies and bonuses
5. Brainstorm ideas for new training courses

Period 4 – Due 5 May

1. Create 1 free product
2. Create 1 salable product
3. Maintain exercise program
4. Read 1 book per week
5. Market and launch e-book, real book
6. Prep for SOBCon

I am pretty excited about this – all of my major goals for the first part of the year, all laid out and ready to be broken up into actionable pieces. This is going to be a very good year.

You can still join in on this running experiment, leave a comment or email a link to your own post.

I recently watched a video presentation by Seth Godin at Benjamin Hysell’s blog, and it got me to thinking. The video is from 2008, and is about Godin’s then most recent book, Meatball Sundae (aff link) and contains a preview of his next book, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us (aff link).

Creating a remarkable product

Godin uses this time with some software engineers to exhort them to create something remarkable, that is, something that people want to talk about, because “ideas that spread, win.” In fact, if your product is remarkable, people will talk about it, especially if talking about the product (or service) makes it better.

This is something that Godin has been talking about since he released Unleashing the Ideavirus (aff link) as a free, 200+ page PDF.

All of the concepts from Godin’s previous books that applied to businesses and products and services have been leading up to the single most important thing that Linchpin represents…you can and should apply these very same principles to yourself and to the people that you lead.

Personal Development = Business Development

Watch this video (it’s about an hour long) with a pencil and paper handy, and jot down notes for yourself as you watch – keeping in mind that you are looking for ways that you can apply these creativity and marketing principles to your own personal development and the professional development of your team.

This is a great video for anyone who makes anything, software or otherwise.

Please to enjoy Seth Godin at the Business of Software 2008.

BTW, tomorrow we start talking about our Groundhog Day Resolutions.