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New Year’s Aspirations

I prefer the term “New Year’s Aspirations” to the more common “New Year’s Resolutions”. Simply put, if I make a New Year’s Resolution and fail to follow through, that thing is, by definition, unresolved. And the only people who like unresolved things are jazz musicians.

Resolving to accomplish something has such a bold finality to it. This is likely a wholly semantical argument, but for some reason, aspirations sit better with me than resolutions. I have no idea what 2010 holds, but I’m aspiring to do a few things—to read more, to learn to fly fish, to lose 30lbs. I don’t know if I’ll write to you a year from now as a well-read, physically fit fly fisherman, but I want to give it a try. To rise up. Seek ambitiously. Aim. Aspire.

So, faithful readers, I hope your 2010 is full of aspiration. And, if things go well for us all, some eventual resolution, too.

Sat 12.26.09 (2 comments)

Tagged: An Entry, Life

The best way to get approval is not to need it. Hugh MacLeod

What Kind of Staff Culture Are You Exporting?

Your staff culture has to represent the culture you’re trying to create in the wider church. That’s one of the biggest misses in contemporary church work. You have a business-run, top-down, bottom-line culture yet you’re trying to bring around a loving, transformative culture in your community. It just doesn’t work.
—John Peacock, Willow Creek Community Church

Obviously, working for a church I feel the weight of this in a very specific way, but I also think the overarching thought plays out in the marketplace as well, in every type of organization. You simply can’t create a macro-culture that doesn’t reflect the micro-culture inherent in your leadership. You might try to fake it for awhile, or cover it up with advertising, marketing, and lots of words, but eventually people will feel the dissonance of who you say you are versus who you actually are.

Is the nature of the relationships around this [leadership] table worth exporting to the rest of the church?
—Randy Pope, Perimeter Church

Again, church or marketplace, it doesn’t matter—if you’re leading, by definition it means others are following. Are the motives and actions of your leadership what you want to instill in people? Are you leading them where you want them to go?

Sun 12.20.09 (3 comments)

Tagged: An Entry, Church, Management, Office Culture, Work

Roger Ebert’s Best Films of 2009 list is available for your perusal. I’ve only seen 3 of the 20, so it looks like I have some Netflix-ing to do. I’m already anxiously awaiting the 1/12 dvd release of The Hurt Locker.

Sun 12.20.09 (0 comments)

In most [advertising] agencies, account executives outnumber the copywriters two to one. If you were a dairy farmer, would you employ twice as many milkers as you had cows? —David Ogilvy

A Bunch of Unrelated Links I Have Open in Tabs Right Now

Merlin Mann’s excellent Short Course on Surviving the Web, Blaine Hogan’s quick interview with The War of Art author Steven Pressfield, John Maeda’s infographic comparison of money spent on science vs. art in America, ad agency Wieden+Kennedy’s new site (love love love the timezone footer), vintage Swiss typography deliciousness from Schweizer Grafiker, DFW-area pastor Matt Chandler talking to his church before having brain surgery to remove a tumor, the simple beautiful writing app Ommwriter, an industrial design student’s brilliant take on redesigning UK power plugs, 37signals’ Jason Fried being interviewed by Chicago School of Business professors and students, and type designer/illustrator Jessica Hische’s lovely new portfolio.

Tue 12.08.09 (6 comments)

Tagged: An Entry, Business, Design, Web Culture

If you’re one of the folks lamenting the untimely demise of the clean, simple Twitter favorites site Favrd, thanks to Ethan you can use this handy userscript to make Favstar look like Favrd.

Mon 12.07.09 (0 comments)

On Getting Better at What You Do

Your existing competency is not the end.

Unless you choose for it to be.

Sun 12.06.09 (1 comment)

Tagged: An Entry, Office Culture, Work

The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody

Fri 12.04.09 (0 comments)

Tagged: An Entry, Creativity, Music, Video


Money ain’t got no owners, only spenders. Omar Little, The Wire

I am happy to report that my good friend and colleague Adam Spooner has a lovely new website. He likes to read, think, work and write, which essentially means he’s one of my favorite types of people. I trust your mind will be expanded by reading along. (Also, you should look at his web development work and hire him. I approve of his craftsmanship 2,763%.)

Mon 11.30.09 (0 comments)

A note from The Management: So lately I link to less, write about more, and do both less frequently than you may have become accustomed to at this URL. One of my New Year’s Aspirations (more on that concept later) is “quality over quantity.” I hope you find the former and don’t miss the latter.

Sun 11.29.09 (2 comments)

There is a difference between being arrogant about yourself as a person and being confident that your work has some value…Some people respond to the one as if it were the other. Don’t confuse them. Jeffrey Zeldman, On Self-Promotion

On Risk, Failure and Reward

If you set your goals ridiculously high and it’s a failure, you will fail above everyone else’s success.
—James Cameron

To put it another way, if you try something extraordinary and fail, you likely learned more than your peers who are unwilling to risk. You become acclimated to a place your peers still fear to tread. Risk is the secret sauce of extraordinary work.

Don’t get me wrong, skill building and knowledge accumulation are vitally important. You need a foundation. But skill and knowledge are freely available to anyone who will put in the hours. Anyone. You have to take your skill and knowledge and do something with it.

Risk, try, act, move.

Sun 11.29.09 (2 comments)

Tagged: An Entry, Office Culture, Work

Most people don’t have enough time to interact with their kids, let alone your brand. Respect that. @leeclowsbeard

Stop Settling for Trying to Be Someone Else

I’ve already written about this topic (see: Copying Doesn’t Hurt Me, It Hurts You) but I want to look at it from a different angle.

Our church website is copied a lot. I’m not saying that in a prideful manner, but simply as a stated fact. I get a “hey, this looks familiar” email at least once a week. As a Christian and a church staffer, I’m mostly on board with it—”same team” we often say. There’s no competitive advantage for us to have a unique website, because this isn’t the marketplace; we’re not competing with other churches. We want to see them succeed. But as a designer, as someone who is passionate about clear communications, it makes me sad.

When you copy an existing site you probably get a decent end-product, but you don’t know why. This is about more than copying design/visual cues, it concerns me to see churches borrowing copywriting style and information architecture. Why? Because you’re borrowing a voice and thought process that isn’t you. When I see a site with the same user flow as ours, all I can think is, “you don’t know why we did that. Your people are probably different.” The way we’re structured, the way we communicate and plan events, the kind of things our communicator(s) say, they’re all different than you. Not better, just different.

But if you homogenize the end-product without understanding the process that led to the original, your website will reflect who you actually are less and less. You’ll keep being you in person, because you can’t help it. But your website will be someone else. And that dissonance is eventually perceivable. A website is the first impression most people have of you; will their physical interactions with your brand feel like the same thing?

Just be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.
— Oscar Wilde

By all means, look at others to learn. Ask questions. But ask the right questions. Ask why something is the way it is, don’t just accept it as globally good. Don’t just look at our website (or anyone else’s) and copy it. They’re not you. And being you at every touchpoint is far more valuable than having a slick website.

Mon 11.16.09 (11 comments)

Tagged: An Entry, Church, Design, Web Design

Montage BlankenshipsA very happy Monday, from the Montage Blankenships to you! (These are inspired by Kevin Meredith’s awesome portrait montages on Flickr.)
I do not know they key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. —Bill Cosby

I wrote an article called Creating Controversy for its own Sake (and How Humility is a Rare Bird Indeed These Days) on one of my other sites. It manages to discuss web design, blogging, humility, UX, the purpose of shareholder-owned companies, and a few other things in around 700 hopefully coherent words.

Thu 11.05.09 (0 comments)

Great article on Building a Culture of Employee Appreciation from Inc.com (which you should read, if you’re into business/workplace stuff.) Plaques and gift cards make people feel like cogs in a big machine. Small, personal gestures, committed consistently over time make people feel valued and appreciated.

Thu 11.05.09 (0 comments)

Whiskerino 2009 OuttakeOne of the things I love about Whiskerino is how daily it makes photography for me. Call it a framework, or a compulsion, but I’m just more aware of a “need” to create content. This one was an outtake I didn’t use for Day 4, but I like it.

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