"Having precise ideas often leads to a man doing nothing." Paul Valery

"The man who listens to reason is lost: Reason enslaves all whose minds are not strong enough to master her." George Bernard Shaw

"Colleges hate geniuses, just as convents hate saints." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today's image: untitled by Lisa at TSS. Beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

Summer reading: Fiction. China Mieville. Finished Perdido Street Station - outstanding! Picked up Mieville's The Scar. This gentleman is an incredible, gifted writer. [Amazon info]

Cara's Basement: Cara chats up my girl Duffy at Chicago Lollapalooza. [Podcast - Listen in here]. Warwick Avenue the next US single - killer! [Official video via YouTube] Kudos to Cara.

Please, help this woman: Deborah Chesher is a published photographer [Amazon info]. Her rock star gets include George Harrison, Jerry Garcia and Frank Zappa. Now, her daughter is having brain surgery and Deborah is selling prints to help pay the bills. Get the story, see the prints here. If you're not able to buy a print, please share the link.

Congrats & cheers: Shel Israel signs Intel as sponsor of his Social Media Global Report.


Colonel Tribune

Give ten points to the gang at Tribune. Col Trib is on Twitter (1,287 updates and counting, 739 followers) setting things in motion for their second TweetUp. The Col is also on FF, brightkite, digg and more. Smart. [More TweetUp info]

"Progress is made by correcting the mistakes resulting from the making of progress." Claude Gibb

"I don't care about what people say about me. I do care about my mistakes." Socrates

"I'm working to improve my methods, and every hour I save is an hour added to my life." Ayn Rand

Today's image: Creativity by Proverbs 31:10. Beautiful. Thank you for sharing. The photographer's taken name is a reference to the verse "Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies." (King James)

"How did we get here?"
Nine keys to success
in three steps

The question you and your team need to discuss daily.

First, do your homework.

The beginning of understanding is perspective. An acceptance of ignorance. A dedication to discovery.

Robert D. Kaplan is a fine writer because he sincerely appreciates the present within relation to its past. His work benefits from the incredible benefits of deep context. A keen observer of the present he understands he is jumping into a story already in progress. A story with a past relevant and critical to grasping the present.

Please permit me to suggest a practical guide. We use this construct on the day job and it consistently produces excellent results. Trade secret: this process has helped us to avoid repeating serious mistakes of the past. This helps clear the "fog" often found in turnarounds.

1. Develop a history. Using all resources available construct a storyline, a timeline of the past.

2. Invite discussion. Post and distribute the timeline. Ask "What happened?" Solicit insight (e.g., "2005 was our best sales year. Why? What made that happen? What did we do then that we are not now doing? Who were the players that made that happen?")

3. Connect the dots. Develop a story, a narrative, for how we got to where we are today.

4. Proof the story. Again, invite discussion. Post and distribute the story. Solicit editorial (e.g., "Please review and correct, adding anything we missed, suggest any changes needed to get this right.")

5. Reflect. What lessons have we learned? What worked? What failed? Why?

6. Decide. How do we best move forward knowing what we know now? This is the most difficult key. Be decisive! Set your course. Commit without reservation. Burn your bridges behind you, set fire to the boats on the shore. No turning back. Forward!

7. Involve. Share the story. Get everyone involved, focused, on the same page. Clearly communicate expectations and consequences. Set high standards. Invite, encourage feedback.

8. Execute. Put your plan into action. Second most difficult key. Move forward. Measure. Discuss. Learn. Tweak. Learn. Cut from the herd those not performing. (Howard is closing 600 US Starbucks stores that are not performing, he's right)

9. Reward. Recognize success, celebrate achievement. Catch people doing something right and make a big deal out of it. Recognition matters most and yields the best ROI.

Second, keep a tight accounting of what's happening, what's not happening and what you are doing to influence the action. Measure constantly. Discuss daily. Keep asking the most important question: WHY? Think!

Third, listen carefully to the lessons of your ongoing discovery. Employ the advantages learned in the study of marketplace history, past and present. A better execution of a repeated "obvious" solution, one earlier failed, is rarely the most productive course. Be willing to admit the harsh possibility - It's not the execution that was bad, the solution, no matter how powerful or obvious the notion, may not be an effective option. Study the attributes of the winners. Discover what they have in common. True story: In one case we found the market leaders (historically) all used out of home media more than any other marketing channel. We directed, counter-intuitively (our local agency said it was a really bad idea and it was, in fact, a poorly ranked out of home market), all of our available resources into the out of home channel and gained significant share almost overnight. Don't fight the flow. Study, discover, learn and respect the nature of market flows. As the great, gifted team of Charlie Boone and Roger Erickson taught me "Know the territory."

Measure > Discuss > Reflect > Decide > Involve > Execute > Reward

Classic counsel: Legendary programming and marketing ace Paul Drew "Give them reasons to stay longer and reasons to come back." One of the top ten "best practices" lessons provided to our interactive clients (also voted by our most successful interactive clients as one of their top ten "most valuable" lessons learned).

Signal vs Noise: What's your favorite Twitter feed to follow (and why?). Thanks to Sarah Perez for the tip.

Bonus: Michael Rosenblum Learning To Live With Infinity Bravos, Michael!

More Grapes Argentina: San Felipe, Malbec, Roble 2007. Nine months in American oak. (Thanks to Whole Foods for the tip). Pascual Toso, Malbec, 2007. Two Mendoza reds under $10. Great values.

Congrats & cheers: reboot10. Nadja Pass offers Freedom is. The talented media performer Cara Carriveau joins WTMX as midday personality.

Photo: Cara Carriveau & Dobie Maxwell

Chicago radio personality Cara Carriveau debuts her podcast Cara's Basement with Dobie Maxwell is Damn Funny. Bravo Cara! Listen in here.

Dobie Maxwell is the popular Chicago standup who once did mornings on Chicago and Milwaukee radio. Dobie is blogging. Check out Dobie's Daily Road Diary here. Everything you wanted to know about Dobie may be found on his site here. (Closed circuit to CBS Radio: hire this guy, a talent blessed with both standup and radio skills, he's perfect for FreeFM. Note to The Conclave: Dobie would be a great addition to your "ears only" faculty, he loves to teach)

"We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect." Thoreau

"Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction." Goethe

"Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself." Faulkner

The first days of Nielsen data adding college student dorm viewing to the mix is interesting. The first indications show some big jumps including NBC's Office jumping from #20 to #8 18-24. Thanks to Steve Sternberg of Magna Global we have a first analysis - the average first two weeks of data with student viewing compared to last fall's season average data without student viewing. Adults 18-24 including college dorm students - Top Five: Grey's Anatomy 10.3/28, Idol - Tue 10.2/31, Idol - Wed 10.0/28, House 8.7/26, Lost 5.7/16 (Jan 29 - Feb 11, Nielsen). Some big jumps among 18-24s when comparing the new "with students" 18-24 numbers with the previous "without students" numbers. Grey's Anatomy up 67%, House up 89%, Ugly Betty up 87%. Kevin Downey has the details in Media Life Magazine, his article Revealed: Top shows for college kids here. So much for the myth that college students are not watching broadcast tv.

Ron Fell's Queen Mary 2 Adventure: The latest from Ron, his Day Twelve report, here. Heard Ron on KGO with John Hamilton this morning. Ron was literally phoning it in from the Pacific where it was 4:30am. Cheers to Ron and John, good segment. Kudos to Jack Swanson's web team. The KGO stream was up and sounding great with one click. My only suggestion is the breaks be filled consistently. When I first connected there was no audio, not a player problem, the break was not filled. Significant upside opportunity here. The less patient might discontinue their session failing to understand the break was simply not filled - they need to hear something that tells them everything is ok.

Gratuitous use of sound: Stayed with the KGO stream after Ron signed off and caught the ABC net toh news (8am pac). Michael Barr did his usual fine job of anchoring but the cast was cluttered with unwarranted sound, pure noise. The cast was a mess. Sound should be used to assist the story telling, to bring something to the cast that words alone can not. This trend of using sound just to use sound does not add to the cast it subtracts. Too clever by half. Under-produce the cast, tell me a story.