Hey everyone, here we go. . . . . .
IN OUR WORLD
I am sorry for not having a post last week, BUT, I was having some computer problems that leaked into the Thanksgiving Holiday, basically blowing my chance of getting the blog posted.
I am deeply appreciative of all my readers who wanted to know what went wrong and why I went dark on a Friday. It would be impossible for me to answer all the emails, so I hope you will accept my apology.
Last week I was in my favorite city in America – San Francisco for a meeting that may set the stage for a huge Repeatable Successful Acts project in 2011. I have a good feeling about it.
This week had me back in California visiting both Sacramento and San Diego, then a quick ride home and off to New Orleans where I am typing this missive on a wonderful morning with my family. A little two day vacation.
Sunday night I am off to Minneapolis to teach the third class in my curriculum project. The subject – PLANNING. Then a mid-week trip to Salt Lake City and on to Denver before finally returning home.
It’s a very busy December!
HEY, YOU CAN FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER –CREATIVEVENTURE
AND ON FACEBOOK – STEPHEN HARVILL!
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW
Most of my client are already done with their strategic planning for 2011 and are ready to hit the ground running. I had the honor of being involved with a number of those plans and was gratified to see that many of them were simple and powerful. Most of the plans had THREE strong and well thought out goals. These goals are fluid. They can move and flex with conditions that impact their success.
I was equally amazed at the number of clients that jumped right into their big ideas for 2011 without a real focused effort of reviewing the process that lead to their 2010 goal structure. It is IMPERATIVE that great planning start from a basis of fact, facts found in the CURRENT REALITY of the goal.
I have preached this idea time and time again, but due to both the strange combination of the simplicity of the idea coupled with how difficult it is to find consensus around a shared reality is often ignored. It’s easy to jump right into where you want to go. It’s enticing and fun. You often hear; “we want to increase our sales by 10% next year”. That starts the process. But slow down, what were sales like in 2010? What was the sales goal? How did you work towards it? What were the successes and what didn’t work? What is the actually reality of sales and the processes and systems driving their growth?
So here is a simple idea – START WITH WHERE YOU ARE AND HOW YOU GOT THERE. Allow a real discussion around this starting point to impact your planning process.
ENTERTAINMENT
MOVIES: Morning Glory: After spending some time with the dark magic of Harry Potter, Laura wanted to see something a little lighter and we jumped into a surprisingly crowded theater to watch this marvelous little romantic comedy. GREAT MUSIC.
NetFlix Fans: Big Fish: I recently was in a discussion about the director Tim Burton. My friend was a huge fan, me, not so much. BUT, I absolutely loved this Burton film. It is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE SMALL MOVIES!
TV: I am seldom in town to see my favorite shows on Dallas time and when I am on the west coast I find myself unable to stay up for the later hours of show times. BUT, I do love the return of The Human Target on Wednesday nights on Fox. If you haven’t seen this thriller show, but it in the DVR line up.
BOOKS: The Book Thief – Zusak: I am a very selfish reader. I like what I like, in both fiction and non-fiction. Laura loved this book and asked me to give it a read and it is next on the list. I have yet to meet a person who has read this odd book told from the perspective of “DEATH” who has not fallen in love with it. It is off my beaten path, but I’m looking forward to it.
MUSIC: I took Laura to see The Weepies on her birthday. They are one of her favorite bands. It was my first exposure to them and then they had a song in the movie Morning Glory. I love this song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4sa2HoXpsE
WEB SITES: Great source for weird news.
http://www.world-english.org/news.htm
SOUTH OF NORMAL
It’s almost time for the Bowl Season, so I thought I would give you some bowl trivia:
- The Rose Bowl, which debuted in 1902 is the oldest of the bowl games. The game has been sold out for 63 straight years.
- 63 % of sports fans hate the BCS system and want a playoff.
- Notre Dame and Duke graduate 96% of their football players.
- Only 68 of the 120 universities in the top tier of college football mad money from the sport in 2009. The biggest money makers include Alabama, Florida and Alabama.
- 30.6 million viewers watched the 2010 National Championship game. Up 4 million from 2009.
Damn, those are some South of Normal numbers!
Drop me a note with your comments at steve@creativeventures.com
Thanks for stopping by and until next time, Adios and Aloha.
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