Today, here’s my list of thirteen favorites from 2013. And as has been the case in previous years, my list of favorites looks nothing like the most viewed blog posts. My list of favorites, as you’ll see here, is generally shaped by the stories behind the blog posts.
Before starting the list, thank you all for your readership, comments, and, suggestions throughout this year and previous years. Blog writing can be a lonely deal, so hearing your thoughts and reactions is wonderful. I appreciate it so much!
Special thanks to my Brainzooming business partner Barrett Sydnor for his contributions to the blog along with Woody Bendle, Randall Rozin, John Q. Harrington, Bill Mullins, Professor John Bennett, Jamie Lacroix, and Max Utsler (along with Blogapalooza writers Jessica James, Kellen Ashford, and Judi Reilly ) for their guest blog posts this year.
Happy New Year, and here are my favorites from 2013 along with the stories attached to each of them.
1. Creating Strategic Impact – The Updated Brainzooming Manifesto
The original Brainzooming strategic thinking manifesto was comprised of the first five posts on the blog. When they were written, there wasn’t underlying content to link to, so this much delayed update provides greater more detail on how we approach strategy development for clients.
2. Creating Strategic Impact – Acting on a Strategic Opportunity at a Different Time
I appreciated readers on the blog and Facebook appreciating this opportunity to celebrate three important dates for my parents this year, even though I only made it to one of them in-person.
3. Creative Ideas – 30 Days of Creativity with Melanie Sklarz the @DoseOfCre8ivity
We don’t do nearly as much video content as we should, but this video was a delightful way to invite you to my in-person meeting with one of my favorite creativity voices on Twitter, Melanie Sklarz. We met up at the Cleveland airport (one of my old business haunts) before my flight back to Kansas City from speaking at Content Marketing World.
4. Creating Strategic Impact – 4 Factors for a Successful Annual Theme
If someone has checked in on the blog for any amount of time, you’re likely to have seen more of a spirituality theme the past few years. This post takes a personal lesson from my spiritual life and spins it around to a business perspective.
5. Staying Productive Working at Home in a Blizzard with no Power
When you don’t have any electricity, you forgot to charge your laptop and iPad beforehand, and you still want to publish a blog post, what do you do? For me, I hand wrote the blog post, took a photo, and published it with advice on staying productive during a power outage.
6. Career Success – 7 Ideas If You Don’t Care About What You Do Anymore
This post had been sitting in an upcoming blog file for quite some time. We finally ran it in December and received an email from a friend who said it was just what he needed that day to deal with some job frustrations. A large part of good timing is admitting you have no clue and simply “listening” for when you should do something.
7 and 8. Strategic Leadership – 18 Learnings from a Personal Strategic Tapestry and A Personal Strategic Tapestry by Professor John Bennett
The idea of living by a strategic tapestry is one I’ve thought about for some time given I avoid wild swings in direction professionally and personally. A tapestry of learning much more closely suits my strategic thinking. I was tremendously honored when the concept resonated with Professor John Bennett who followed the original post by sharing his own strategic tapestry with Brainzooming readers.
9. You Just Might be a Thought Leader by Woody Bendle
I love a good Woody Bendle rant, and this one, originating from a frustrating conference experience Woody sat through this year, is my favorite one so far.
10. Business Innovation – R.I.P. Failure by Jamie Lacroix
I loved the concept of having a funeral for failed ideas that Jamie Lacroix shared as a participant on a webinar given by branding expert Julie Cottineau. Jamie was gracious enough to share the concept in greater depth with Brainzooming readers, along with photos of the tombstones commemorating failed ideas at her organization.
11. Creating Cool Product Names for a New Product Idea – Creative Thinking Mini-Poster
This was our first blatant attempt at creating an infographic from Brainzooming content. It’s something we’d like to do more of given the time to do it well. Solid infographics are definitely not quick to complete!
12. Creative Ideas – What’s The Biggest No You Ever Received?
It’s not often you are asked a completely new question during a presentation, but this was one about the biggest NO I’d ever received. I thought I gave the correct answer at the “Taking the NO out of InNOvation” presentation for an IT consulting company in Nashville. Upon further reflection, I realized the answer was wrong; here’s the right answer.
13. Creative Ideas and Diversity – The Brainzooming TEDx Talk at TEDxWyandotte
While there’s not a lot to the text of this post, it contains the video of my TEDxWyandotte video. If you want to see a TEDx talk that wasn’t tightly scripted, check this out. Audience members got to pick their own preferred path through this TEDx talk on a creativity community. – Mike Brown
