I’ve never thought of myself as a natural speaker, but a few months ago, I had the opportunity to participate in an incredible coaching experiencing with some folks from Decker Communications in a class called Communicating to Influence. It really changed the way I see myself as a communicator now. After the class, I was fortunate enough to begin corresponding with Bert Decker. Bert was gracious enough to send me a copy of his newly updated book You’ve Got to Be Believed to Be Heard. Based on my coaching experience, I couldn’t wait to read this book. I wasn’t disappointed. In fact, the book is in my Ten Best Books of 2008 list alongside other great authors like Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, Garr Reynolds, Nancy Duarte, and Malcolm Gladwell. Bert Decker definitely has earned his spot amongst these other luminaries.

The book starts off with a fabulous discussion of the difference between the Old Communicators and the New Communicators. It is with great insight that Bert has defined the New Communicators as those people who are successful in not only communicating information but in connecting with their listeners. Connecting on emotional levels. The New Communicators don’t just provide information, through these emotional connections, they influence and motivate others to action. Here’s a quick listing from Bert’s book of some of the Old Communicators and the New Communicators:

The Old Communicators

• Mark McGwire (Former Major League Baseball player)
• Bill Walsh (Former San Francisco ’49ers coach and football commentator)
• Michael Chertoff (Former Secretary of Homeland Security)
• Lee Raymond (Former CEO of Exxon/Mobil)
• Jeanine Pirro (Former candidate for Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat from New York State…”Do you have page 10?”)

The New Communicators

• Bono (U2)
• Steve Jobs (Apple)
• Oprah Winfrey (The Oprah)
• Steve Irwin (The Crocodile Hunter)
• Bill Clinton (You really don’t need me to tell you he is do you?)
• John Madden (Football commentator)

Wow, a lot of formers in the Old Communicators list. And I’m guessing you didn’t remember who most of them are. And a lot of easily recognizable people in that second list. My guess is, I didn’t need to tell you who they were. There’s a reason for that. They all connect with people on that deeper, emotional level. You “know” them. And it’s because they reach what Bert calls “The First Brain”.

So what is the First Brain and how do you reach it? That’s what the rest of this book is about. In Bert’s words:

“The First Brain is the nonreasoning, nonrational part of our brain. Simply put, it is the seat of human emotion…The reason the First Brain is so important to effective communication is precisely because it is the seat of emotion and emotional response…If you want to get your message across, you must persuade your listener’s First Brain that you are trustworthy, that your are likeable, that you represent warmth, comfort, and safety.”

Sounds like a large order to reach the First Brain. But Bert does an amazing job walking you through the two primary factors and the six skills necessary to persuade you’re listener’s First Brain. The two factors: The Eye Factor and the Energy Factor. The Eye Factor is very powerful as is the visual sense. Bert informs us that:

“The nerve pathways of the eye to the brain are twenty-five times larger than those from the ear to the brain. The eye is the only sensory organ that contains brain cells. Memory experts invariably emphasize techniques that link the information you want to remember to a visual image.”

But wait, I thought this book was about speaking? It is. And non-verbal, visual skills are part of speaking. Bert goes into great depth on the visual impact that you have as a speaker. He dives into skills exercises and practical advice on how to improve and refine your eye communication, your posture and movement, your dress and appearance, your gestures, and The Smile to help you become effective at persuading your listener’s First Brain.

The second factor, the Energy Factor, is equally as important. I love that when Bert describes the best communicators in the world, he says that they are not teachers, not actors, not politicians or news anchors. They are two-year olds! They convey their messages with uninhibited energy. And believe me it’s true. I have a two-year old son and there is no mistaking what he wants you to do. He has a ton of energy when he communicates. Bert tells us we can learn a lot from these two-year olds and their energy. And that’s the trick, it’s all about unlocking our energy. Bert provides some great practical advice and exercises on how to improve the energy skills of your powerful voice and vocal variety as well as your use of words and nonwords. Nonwords? Right. Learn how to effectively use the pause! On a personal note, I have struggled all my life with fact that I have a very soft voice. After taking the Decker training and practicing the exercises in this book, I’m finding it much easier to speak with energy and be heard (thanks Bert).

The book concludes with a section on organizing your content to create a focused message. It is based around Bert’s proven Decker Grid System. This method of content organization is designed to drive your listeners to action. It’s a simple method, but one that I find to be extremely powerful in helping deliver targeted messages to the needs and wants of your audience. I’ve been using it for about three months now and I am amazed at the results.

Overall, Bert’s writing style is natural and casual. It’s almost as if you are sitting down talking with an old friend. There are lots of great first-hand stories and accounts in the book that really help you connect the information Bert is conveying with real-world examples. And, these stories help you get to “know” Bert a little better as well. The advice and exercises in the book are simple and easy to implement. The message is clear: You can be a New Communicator today!

About Bert Decker: Bert Decker is a national communications expert, best selling author and entrepreneur, founding the communications training company Decker Communications, Inc. He has been featured in the NY Times, Business Week, 20/20, as well as being the communications commentator for the NBC TODAY Show for the Presidential Debates.

• Coach to Charles Schwab, U.S. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, former Mattel CEO’s John Ammerman and Jill Barrad, Olympians Bonnie Blair and Tom Dolan, SF 49er All-Pro Brent Jones, and dozens of other executives
• Founder, Chairman and CEO of Decker Communications, Inc., a leader in communications training and executive coaching.
• Consultant to Siemens, State Farm, Schwab, Met Life, and many others
• Professional Speaker and best selling author of “You’ve Got to Be Believed To Be Heard” and “Speaking With Bold Assurance”
• Co-producer of an Academy Award documentary
• Entrepreneur, founder of four companies, Chairman of Bold Assurance Ministries, NBC TODAY Communications Expert commentator, Advisory Board Salvation Army

There was an amazing interview on CNN recently with Haruka Nishimatsu, the CEO of JAL, Japan Airlines. The interview could have been a primer on how to be an ethical CEO who cares about his people and his company more than he cares about his own compensation. According to the report, when JAL slashed jobs and asked older employees to retire early, Nishimatsu cut every single one of his corporate perks, and then for three years running slashed his own pay. In 2007, he made about $90,000 U.S., less than what his pilots earn. In Japan, says Nishimatsu, there’s less of a pay gap between the top and the bottom. “We in Japan learned during the bubble economy that businesses who pursue money first fail. The business world has lost sight of this basic tenet of business ethics.”

The report also details Nishmatsu’s daily routine: “After his morning commute on the city bus, Haruka Nishimatsu heads into the office and gets busy at his desk with the rest of his Japan Airlines coworkers. At lunch, he lines up in the cafeteria and hopes lunch doesn’t get too cold as he waits to pay. Not exactly the glamorous life you’d expect from the CEO of one of the world’s top ten international airlines. ‘Is it so strange?’, asks Nishimatsu.”

Glenn Tilton

Now, consider Glenn Tilton, CEO of United Airlines. Tilton’s total compensation package is the highest in the airlines industry. In 2006, Tilton’s compensation alone exceeded $39.7 million ($38 million in stock and options) in a year the company emerged from bankruptcy and employees were forced to accept painful cuts. In 2007 Tilton was rewarded with $10.3 million and United has an additional plan called the “2008 Incentive Compensation Plan” to again lavishly reward failed decision making. Tilton’s compensation seem pretty excessive in light of his company’s poor performance and the impact of extreme inequity on the morale of the workforce.

Consider this too: Until recently, soaring oil prices were the alleged reason United decided to impose a $15 fee to check your first bag and a $25 fee to check a second bag on domestic flights. Even though oil prices have come back down, United’s baggage fees remain because they are boosting the airline’s dismal finances and moving customers to “a la carte” pricing — passengers pay for the services they use, whether it’s a sandwich bought on board, a checked bag or assistance from a telephone reservationist. United has said it expects to collect $275 million annually from the first- and second-bag fees.

As United Airlines is losing money, cutting their services, and asking you, the flying public, to pay for standard services, or a fee for 5 inches of leg room, Tilton is raking in a seriously inflated compensation package based on a poor performance record. Aside from the basic ethical and moral issues that this raises, on a deeper level think about what this does to morale at United Airlines. I mean, really, who would you rather work for: Nishimatsu or Tilton? Or better yet, who would respect more and work harder for?

The fact that Nishimatsu makes less than his employees is significant. That he takes the bus to work, has a simple office, eats lunch with his employees in the cafeteria, and has cut everyone of his executive perks is really significant. He’s one of them. He cares more about his employees than he does about money. How many CEO’s can say that? He’s also not a top down kind of manager. In his 2008 Greeting on the JAL website, Nishmatsu said:

Strengthening workplaces is not something that can be done entirely from the top down. Currently, an employee-proposed and led initiative called “JAL Tomorrow” is being carried out in order to create a vision for JAL’s future. By the end of fiscal 2007, Group employees had submitted 11,596 proposals and comments concerning the kind of company they want JAL to become, the kind of airline they want to work for. I was very surprised by the number of responses. It is fantastic that employees created their own initiative to help JAL become a company that will be more trusted by customers. The management team and I will continue to support this initiative in every way possible.

Compare that to United performance statistics since Tilton took over as CEO of United in 2002. Here are some stats from the US Department of Transportation’s Air Travel Consumer Report:

• Capping their steady decline, United tied US Airways in calendar year 2006 for the highest number of complaints per passengers flown (1.36 per 100,000 system-wide enplanements).
• In the category of customer service problems, which the DOT defines as “rude or unhelpful employees, inadequate meals or cabin service, treatment of delayed passengers“, United holds the distinction of being the worst among the top-10 US carriers for 2004, 9th place in 2003 (Continental took 10th), tied America West for 9th place in 2002 (American took 10th).

And Tilton’s pilots aren’t in love with him either. This year, they went on an all out offensive to remove him from his position. Their main complaint: His excessive compensation package in light of his poor performance. They’ve started a website called Glenn Tilton Must Go. And this was the message they flew around United’s Chicago headquarters this past Labor Day:

United’s Pilots to Tilton: “Glenn’s Gotta Go!”

Hmmm, not so great for United and Tilton. Nishimatsu is, in my mind, what a true leader should be. Inspiring, caring, fair, and most important, ethical. I’d work for him tomorrow.

Not to be on too big of a Japan vs. U.S. kick these days, but what do Japanese companies understand that American companies don’t? Last month I wrote about Toyota and their commitment to their employees. Now this interview with the JAL CEO surfaces a similar sentiment. If more executives would show more respect and caring for their employees and their companies like Nishimatsu has, maybe they wouldn’t be in the bad shape they’re in today.

If you missed the interview, here’s the complete video:

Do you know how many hourly jobs GM has laid off from 2006 to July 2008? Take a guess. How about 34,000? And now, they’re talking about another 5,500 layoffs. And now they’re asking you and your government for a bailout to end their troubled, outdated, low quality, wasteful production system. But, let’s not focus on fixing GM’s problems with an infusion of cash. There’s something even deeper going on here that’s really wrong.

OK, here’s a better question. How many hourly jobs has Toyota’s American production system laid off in the same time frame? Zero. That’s right. ZERO. How? Isn’t Toyota experiencing the same slow down in auto sales as GM is? Yes, it is. And yes, Toyota has halted production at its Texas and Indiana plants for the past 3 months. But the 4,500 people who work at those plants have not been laid off. What!?!?! How? Why?

The answer: Toyota has a special culture, deep-rooted values, and respect for their workforce. Toyota’s tradition is to NOT lay off employees during hard times. This tradition hasn’t really been put to the test until now. And Toyota has stuck to its guns and its values.

“This was the first chance we’ve really had to live out our values,” says Latondra Newton, general manager of Toyota’s Team Member Development Center in Erlanger, Ky. “We’re not just keeping people on the payroll because we’re nice. At the end of all this, our hope is that we’ll end up with a more skilled North American workforce.”

Interesting. But what does that last line mean? “At the end of all this, our hope is that we’ll end up with a more skilled North American workforce.” It means that while these employees were not manufacturing automobiles, they were in training. They were doing safety drills, participating in productivity improvement exercises, attending presentations on material handling and workplace hazards, taking diversity and ethics classes, attending maintenance education and taking a stream of online tests to measure and record their skill improvements. Toyota is shifted the Texas and Indiana workers temporarily to Toyota plants whose assembly lines were moving at full speed, such as the Camry assembly plant in Georgetown, Ky. In addition to all of this, the workers also spent some time painting the plants and even helped build Habitat for Humanity homes. And they were getting paid.

Wow! So what is this costing Toyota? The estimate is at least $50 million dollars, plus the loss of revenue of shutting down production. Why is this value and tradition worth so much to Toyota? Why would they be willing to spend $50 million rather than lay people off? It’s because Toyota believes that its people, yes, its PEOPLE are its greatest investment and its greatest asset. You hear so many companies say that, but would they really put their money where their mouths are when the rubber hits the road (no pun intended)? In Toyota’s case, the answer is yes they would.

So what does Toyota get out of this? When, not if, the plants return to full production, Toyota will have well trained employees on the front line, ready and able to meet the demand for their vehicles. And not only will they be well trained, they’ll be happy and motivated to work. Because Toyota is willing to go to the mat for their people, their people will be willing to do the same for Toyota.

The lesson here: Unlike their counterparts GM and Ford, Toyota has always taken a long-term strategic view about their employees. Toyota understands that laying off thousands of employees for slowdowns or plant retooling is counter productive. They wisely utilize the time to redistribute their workforce to understaffed plants, provide additional training for the new products, and leverage their workforce to speed the transition for newer products. Their philosophy has avoided labor disputes and staffing shortages. It has kept the company as a leader in quality and profitability over its shortsighted competitors.

So, the message for you in all of this: Really commit to upholding the value that your people, let me repeat that, your PEOPLE are your greatest asset. Treat them with respect and dignity. Do everything in your power and your imagination to keep them on the payroll during the rough times. If you don’t, you may not find those people again on the upside of the downturn. And if you do, you’ll have hyper-productive, motivated teams delivering quality because they’re committed on a deeper level to your company.

Note 1: If you really want to understand why the Big 3 are losing big time compared to Toyota in terms of market share, take a listen this excerpt from Public Radio International’s “The World” report from last Friday (Nov. 14, 2008) describing why Toyota and other Japanese manufacturers seem to have a leg up on their American counterparts (for the complete report, from The World, click here).  After reading this post, you might not be so surprised when you hear that the employees being laid off by the Big 3 are now working at Toyota.  Click here to listen to the excerpted report.

Note 2: From Forbes online: At American companies, finance guys and marketers rise to the top.  Not at Honda.  Read the whole article here.

Note 3: Another Japanese leader shows the way to be a true leader: When Japan Airlines JAL slashed jobs and asked older employees to retire early, their CEO cut every single one of his corporate perks, and then for three years running slashed his own pay. In 2007, he made about $90,000 U.S., less than what his pilots earn.  Compare that to United Airlines CEO Glenn Tilton: In 2006, Tilton’s compensation alone exceeded $39.7 million ($38 million in stock and options) in a year the company emerged from bankruptcy and employees were forced to accept painful cuts!  Read the rest of the story about JAL and United here.

In everyone’s life, there are those rare people you come into contact with that truly change your life. There are a precious few such people in my life, but probably none more important than Dr. E.L. Deckinger…or as most of us have come to know him, Larry. I met Larry back in 1986 when I was studying marketing and advertising at St. John’s University in New York. He was my professor in my first advertising class. When I walked into the class for the first time, I saw Dr. Deckinger’s crazy, wild hair and his big glasses and wondered what I had gotten myself into. Before long, I realized that what I had gotten myself into was the opportunity to work with a marketing and advertising genius on a daily basis. Dr. Deckinger distilled his 40+ years of marketing knowledge into some very basic principles: (1) be different….always be different (2) be remarkable…always be remarkable and (3) make people happy…ALWAYS! At the time, I didn’t realize it, but these were not just the keys to success in the advertising and marketing world, they were the keys to a successful and happy life.

I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to take several more classes with Dr. Deckinger over the next few years. I worked very closely with him and other advertising students to bring St. John’s students to the National Student Advertising Competition held in New York City in 1988. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. Dr. Deckinger never allowed our team to be ordinary. He never allowed us to approach this as just a contest. To us and to him, this was a real-world test about who was truly remarkable.

After I finished school at St. John’s, Larry was instrumental in helping me land a job at Grey Advertising, one of the top ad agencies in the world. Larry would visit with me at Grey and we’d talk shop over hot dog lunches on park benches in Manhattan. As my career progressed, I moved around to other agencies like Backer Spielvogel Bates and Saatchi & Saatchi. Every time I got to a new agency and talked about my past experiences, Larry’s name would always come up. It seemed like everyone knew Larry. No matter how much time had passed, Larry always kept in touch and visited with me when he was in the city. We always talked marketing and advertising; it was our passion. But we talked a lot about life too. Larry always told me that life was a long road with many turns and twists. He said you never really knew where the road was heading but that you should enjoy the ride, especially the bumpy parts. He was ever so right.

Over the years, I left advertising as a full-time job and pursued other careers, ultimately ending up in the software development field. Larry and I kept in touch by mail and eventually, we really only connected once or twice a year. It was late last week that I decided to get in touch with Larry to ask a few questions. But I couldn’t seem to find him. I knew Larry was getting on in years (he turned 90 in April of ’07) and started to think the worst. When I did some Google searches, much to my dismay, I found the New York Times obituary for Larry. I sat at my laptop for a long time and just stared into space. One of the people who shaped my life the most, a true mentor, a good friend, was gone. My memories flashed back 20 years to my days at St. John’s and the lessons I had learned from Larry. All of our great park bench conversations came rushing back. Then I turned back to the obituary and didn’t think that the simple words printed there came close to describing the amazing person that I knew. Although Larry is gone, I know that a part of him lives on in myself and countless other students that he taught not just marketing lessons to, but life lessons as well. Larry cared about every one of his students. Truly cared in a way that a father cares for his children. We weren’t just a part of his job; we were a part of his life and he a part of ours. Larry, I’ll miss you more than you’ll ever know and I’m ever so sorry I never got to say goodbye.

If you want to know more about Larry and the great things he accomplished in his life, check out this article on the St. John’s Alumni page.  It’s much better than reading a simple obituary.

I found it really shocking that 25% of CIO’s considered SQA “Nice to Have” and 15% apparently don’t even think about it. Why this is so shocking is that the same exact CIO’s who said that SQA is not really important to them said that their #1 management challenge is cost reduction. Hmm…consider the cost of software failures (both small and catastrophic) due to low quality. It could be in the millions from lost revenue, a reduced customer base, and let’s not forget about the law suits if you really messed up. Now, reconsider the cost reduction strategy. 40% of the CIO’s surveyed had not invested in any type of software automation at all. Only 1/3 made a significant investment of over $100,000 in testing automation, and another 18% were “just dabbling in it”. When you consider that really large companies could spend upwards of $250,000 on automated testing tools, it seems like a small amount to spend considering the large amount of money a company stands to lose due to catastrophic software failures.

To me, this cost reduction (or avoidance) strategy just makes no sense at all. I believe that CIO’s that ignore is discard the benefits of testing have a careless disregard for customer satisfaction, not to mention disregard for the long-term bottom-line health of their companies. To me, it’s a short-term, near-sighted solution, that in the long run can cause the demise of otherwise healthy software companies. So, do yourself and your customers a favor and make the investment in software testing. And if you decide to make SQA more than just a cost of doing business, make it a fundamental business practice or a strategic business imperative, you’ll have a competitive advantage over 56% of the rest of your competitors.

Note: The survey was conducted by Richmond Events and sponsored by Original Software. The respondents were all delegates of the CIO Forum in New York, their companies having average annual revenues of $5.8billion, and IT budgets of $764 million.

Click HERE to download the complete Software Quality and Testing: A CIO Perspective whitepaper.

Getting naked in short selling from Marketplace on Vimeo

Seth Godin‘s new book Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us has just been released as a free audio download at audible.com. I took a listen today and the book is great (in fact, Seth actually reads the book). As most of you already know, I’m part of the Seth Godin Tribe. For those of you who don’t know who Seth is truly a marketing thought leader. His views on customer evangelism, edgecraft, branding, and marketing in general are unparalleled in my opinion. His down to earth, customer focused way of seeing the business world is awesome. One of his main points of marketing to the masses is the idea of creating tribes and tribe management. Tribes are the true fans who have a sense of depth of commitment.  Earlier today I wrote about the Schaar Tribe in New Holstein, WI.  So what are tribes and what is tribe management.  In his own words:

“Tribe management is a whole different way of looking at the world. It starts with permission, the understanding that the real asset most organizations can build isn’t an amorphous brand but is in fact the privilege of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who want to get them.

It adds to that the fact that what people really want is the ability to connect to each other, not to companies. So the permission is used to build a tribe, to build people who want to hear from the company because it helps them connect, it helps them find each other, it gives them a story to tell and something to talk about.”

So, head on over to audible.com now and download your free unabridged copy of Tribes now and start building your own tribe.

If you pass the test you can send the email. It’s really easy to enable and configure Mail Goggles. First, go to Settings in GMail and select the Labs tab. Scroll down the page to find and enable the Mail Goggles application. It looks like this:

Once you’ve enabled it, go to the General Settings to adjust the schedule and level of difficulty you’d like Mail Googles to use to “test” you.

It’s that easy! So, if you’ve sent emails that you’ve later regretted sending, you owe it to yourself to check out Mail Goggles. Now only if they had something like this for blog posts!!!

Every one of the sponsoring companies is looking for really smart developers and engineers just like you, so they’re contributing to a fund that we use to fly in up to 100 qualified candidates. We pay for your airfare, hotel and transportation. (We’ll also make sure you don’t starve while you’re here.) You’ll spend three days and two nights here in Boulder; one day will be spent checking out Boulder, another day will be spent meeting with all of the sponsoring companies, and yet another day will be spent following up with the companies you’re most interested in. In short, there is no easier (or cheaper) way to explore a really cool town, learn about a bunch of killer startups, and search for your next career change, all in one. Don’t wait to tell us about yourself.

So, if you can code Java in your sleep, have the greatest relations with relational databases, and are viewed by your peers as a Web-app development guru, we’d like to meet you the last week in October. If you’d like to know more about the event, check out the additional details at Boulder.Me and then click the button to apply.

If you’d like to learn more about Rally, the #1 fastest growing company in 2007, recognized three years running as one of the best companies to work for in Colorado, as well as a three-time winner of JOLT Product Excellence Awards (the Oscars of the software industry) in our category in 2006, 2007 and 2008, check us out at www.rallydev.com.  You can also check out our top ten reasons to develop for Rally.

We’re looking forward to meeting you next month.  We think you’ll like what you see.

I received some great news today.  My Edgehopper blog just made the Alltop list for programming blogs. Alltop brings you all of the top stories from the best sites on the internet.  To learn more about Alltop, visit here.  If you’re not familiar with Alltop, here’s how they describe their site:

"We help you explore your passions by collecting stories from all the top sites on the web. We’ve grouped these collections — aggregations — into individual Alltop sites based on topics such as environment, photography, science, Muslim, celebrity gossip, military, fashion, gaming, sports, politics, automobiles, and Macintosh. At each Alltop site, we display the headlines of the latest stories from dozens of sites and blogs. You can think of an Alltop site as a digital magazine rack of the Internet. To be clear, Alltop sites are starting points—they are not destinations per se. The bottom line is that we are trying to enhance your online reading by both displaying stories from the sites that you’re already visiting and helping you discover sites that you didn’t know existed. In other words, our goal is the cessation of Internet stagnation by providing aggregation without aggravation.”

Dan Roam, author of The Back of the Napkin (one of my favorite blogs and books), describes Alltop this way:

Every now and then, I reflect on who our society bestows the title of celebrity upon.  And when I do so, I am somewhat disappointed as I realize that we hold in highest regard people like the Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohans of the world.  I’m not an elitist, but I have a difficult time understanding why people with such little creativity or real impact on our lives receive so much of our attention.

What’s more troubling is that while these "celebrities" enjoy the spotlight, glamour, and economic benefits of their celebrity status, real genius often goes unrecognized or unrewarded.  Fortunately for us, every year, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation seeks out and recognizes the real geniuses who deserve to be considered celebrities in their own right through the MacArthur Fellows Program.  According to the Foundation:

The MacArthur Fellows Program awards unrestricted fellowships to talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction. There are three criteria for selection of Fellows: exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishment, and potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work.

The 2008 MacArthur Fellows have just been announced.  So, if you’re looking for some inspiration and real genius, check out the 25 newest MacArthur Fellows here.  Perhaps you’ll find someone there who truly deserves to be called a celebrity.

On the professional front, I’ve left my development team at Data Transfer Solutions and have joined Rally Software Development as an Agile Coach. It was a hard decision to leave my team but it was time to move on. Rally offered such an exciting future and is such a great company, it was hard to say no to an offer from them. I’ll be working with organizations from all over the world and getting the opportunity to work with folks that I am still in awe of.

As for the blog, it’ll no longer be called GeoScrum. As I leave the GIS world after 15 years, the focus of the blog will lean more toward agile practices. In addition to being a huge agile proponent, I really value and try to communicate to others the value of customer enthusiasm and customer evangelism. I’m also very concerned about great design, branding, and marketing. I have adopted a very Zen approach in everything I do from design and presentations to writing and speaking. Sometimes, simpler is better! So the “new” blog will focus on these things in addition to agile practices.

As such, I am re-branding and renaming the blog to EdgeHopper. The new blog and site will contain pages with links to multimedia content, my personal reading list, and a “Where’s Chris” page with details about my upcoming speaking and coaching engagements. So, why EdgeHopper? Well, I’m a huge Seth Godin fan. Seth likes to talk a lot about edgecraft. In Seth’s words: “Edgecraft is a methodical and measurable process that allows individuals and teams to inexorably identify the soft innovations that live on the edges of what already exists. The future belongs to people who can invent, implement, and sell the ideas–the free prizes–that become purple cows.” (And if you don’t know what a Purple Cow is, check out The Reading List page of my site). So EdgeHopper is my homage to Seth. I’m always hopping around the edges looking for something that I can turn into the future. It’s my passion.

I created this site and this blog to share my thoughts, ideas, and opinions on all of these topics. I hope the readers and casual passers-by of this little online forum find something useful. And if you don’t, I hope you at least smile as you check out my musings.

Hi everyone.  In case you’ve been wondering where GeoScrum has gone, I’ve been taking a summer break from writing.  In addition to racking up a ton of miles on the bike this summer, I’ve been focused on developing course content for DTS Agile and working on presentations for several speaking engagements.  In the coming weeks I’ll be speaking at Agile ’08 with Rachel Weston of Rally.  We’ll be doing an Agile Contracting Workshop at Agile ’08 in Toronto and hope to see you there.

I’ll also be one of three panelists speaking at a Social Media event presented by Ground Floor Media.  Other confirmed panelists include James Clark, a social media and word of mouth marketing expert and the co-founder of Room 214, Inc. (www.room214.com) and Tiffany Childs, community manager for Yelp.com (www.yelp.com).  The event will be held at Ground Floor Media’s offices (1923 Market St, Denver, CO) on July 31 from 4:00-5:30 PM.

Finally, I will presenting a one-day Agile Workshop with Dave Bouwman for ESRI Canada at their annual Tech Trek Event at the Kempenfelt Centre in Barrie, Ontario later in August.

Hopefully you’re all having a great summer.  Hopefully, I can connect with some of you at one of the events listed above or at our agile training classes in Fort Collins.

From the Agile Support site:

Agile methods are simple to understand, but difficult to practice and perfect. At Agile Support, we provide an open public forum for practitioners, experts, coaches, academics and newbies to all learn from each other. We also provide for-pay and invitation-only private areas for discussions, downloads, tools, and other types of collaboration and support.