My 2010 Business Wish List: Designing change in business and life

Three blog posts inspired me to write this post.

1. Penelope Trunk’s post titled, My Birthday Post. I like the part where she notes,

“…you have to be learning on your blog. If you’re not learning, no one else is learning. You can’t fake it. It’s safe to talk about what you know, but it’s not that interesting; no one likes a know-it-all. My favorite posts are the one’s when I was doing something scary, but doing it with grace. In fact, I actually think those are my favorite times of life.”

2. Chris Brogan’s post titled, My Business Wish List for 2010. Chris notes,

“What do I want the world to bring me for business in 2010? It seems like a reasonable question to contemplate, don’t you agree?”

3. Seth Godin’s post titled, Eight Questions and a Why. The questions challenge readers to focus their time and energy.

After returning from a wonderful and much needed vacation, I have a range of emotions related to what I’m going to put out there in 2010. I’m excited. I’m scared. I’m hopeful. I’m open. That, like Penelope’s remarks, do what memorable writing does to spark readers to take take a risk, to do something scary, to put yourself out there. So here goes …

Three blog posts inspired me to write this post.

1. Penelope Trunk’s post titled, My Birthday Post. I like the part where she notes,

“…you have to be learning on your blog. If you’re not learning, no one else is learning. You can’t fake it. It’s safe to talk about what you know, but it’s not that interesting; no one likes a know-it-all. My favorite posts are the one’s when I was doing something scary, but doing it with grace. In fact, I actually think those are my favorite times of life.”

2. Chris Brogan’s post titled, My Business Wish List for 2010. Chris notes,

“What do I want the world to bring me for business in 2010? It seems like a reasonable question to contemplate, don’t you agree?”

3. Seth Godin’s post titled, Eight Questions and a Why. The questions challenge readers to focus their time and energy.

After returning from a wonderful and much needed vacation, I have a range of emotions related to what I’m going to put out there in 2010. I’m excited. I’m scared. I’m hopeful. I’m open. That, like Penelope’s remarks, do what memorable writing does to spark readers to take take a risk, to do something scary, to put yourself out there. So here goes.

My Business Wish List and Plans for 2010

• For RiverFork Consulting, I want to develop more great content on strategy, innovation, and leadership of change in business and in life. I will continue to focus on the intersection of two management fields, change management and design thinking, to illuminate a path of designing and leading change.
• For my writing, I want to write a column for a magazine like FastCompany, BusinessWeek, Harvard Business Review, The Huffington Post, BNET, etc. I don’t have contacts into any of these companies. I’m hopeful that someone reading this will.
• For my book on realizing successful change (title TBD), I want to publish this year. I’m not sure whether I should self publish or find a publisher. Any insights would be appreciated.
• For my blog, I want more subscribers.
• For RiverFork Consulting, I want to create an online community of people interested in leading and designing successful change in business and life.
• I want some sponsors to seek out RiverFork Consulting.
• I want to interview the following people on designing and leading change in business and in life:.
  • Chris Brogan, social media and social networks author, blogger, and president of New Marketing Labs, a new media marketing agency.
  • Tim Brown, design thinking thought leader, author, and CEO of IDEO, a design consultancy firm.
  • Rosabeth Moss Kanter, author, thought leader, Harvard Business Review blogger, and career that is too impressive to capture here. Click on the link to learn more. In my view, Rosabeth rocks.
  • Penelope Trunk, author, blogger, and founder of 3 startups – most recently, Brazen Careerist, a career management tool for next-generation professionals.

Why create a list?

First, it forces us to focus. With so much information tempting our short attention spans, lists keep us focused on what’s important. Consciously choosing where to spend our time and energy rather than wandering—that’s the value of lists.  Julien Smith, co-author of Trust Agents with Chris Brogran, wrote a great blog post on 2010 being the year of the list.

My list seems daunting at this moment and Penelope’s remarks remind me that I, all of us really, need to do something scary and do it  with grace. I hope this post encourages you to create a list to focus on the changes you want to design in your business and life. If you are inspired to take a risk and create a list, please consider linking it to this post.

Photo credit nocas.