To Delivery......And Beyond!

This time last year I was collaborating a friend in the US in writing what we expected to be an e-book of essays and advice for change agents. This had grown from a chance encounter on the internet in mid-2010 and had become an exercise for international, virtual collaboration and co-design, co-authorship, etc..

We were both excited about it, but around the turn of the year 2010/11 after the first bloom of enthusiasm as we were getting into some of the more detailed and emotional (eg cover design) aspects of the project some differences in approach and expectations were becoming apparent. After an open and friendly exchange of views I stepped away, allowing my friend and now colleague to continue with the work. This was very amicable and I wished her then and still do wish her the very best. It is my understanding that this has now taken a more traditional approach than the one I had envisaged.

My excitement was and still is the explore the opportunities created by ebook production and distribution via iPad, Android device, Kindle, etc. I think the ability to reach to a global audience and offer a fairly priced, immediately available proposition is one of the real advances made available by technology.

I have embraced the smart phone world more since last year enjoying and Samsung Galaxy S II alongside my iPad so seeing the best Android and Apple worlds.

I did little last year to progress matters as other life issues took precedence, plus I did not have a clear message/content set to create.

So bringing us up to date, I have started 2012 with renewed vigour. When, just after Christmas, I was reveiwing what happened last year as a whole, I revisited the ebook episode. I don't recall how but I also chanced across (or maybe went looking via Google) some new tools to create apps. This inspired me to look again at the opportunity and challenge.

I had also been approached about running an Executive Briefing day for an events company on a subject of my choosing. I had proposed one topic, but as I considered the ebook arena I realised that I might well be able to cross-fertilise ideas.........hence the working title used for this blog and in the draft title graphic for my work.

Without giving too much away I am working on a contribution to the development and support of better/great change sponsors. Good effective sponsorship (or rather the lack of it) is consistently cited as one of the major reasons for project failure, yet there is little support or training in the area. While broadly speaking the population of project managers and project sponsors should be roughly the same, some simple Google searches show 350 fewer hits for sponsorship than management. Taking hits as an indicator of the level of discussion and resource available to advance and support sponsorship, I see an opportunity.

So that is my personal target - to create and distribute an e-book resource for project sponsorship. I have blogged the intent here as a stake in the ground. Making this public increases the chance of successful delivery. This time I have used my "simplify card" as they do in challenges for "The Cube" on TV. I shall do this myself. I believe I have the content now and I am already outlining it. I have started about the image and design aspects, something I enjoy and I believe the tools I can use to create this product have advanced in the last 12 months, as has use of the target devices.

Sometimes things have their proper time and maybe this year is better for this undertaking than last?

So as the RAF would say................ per ardua, ad astra.

Wish me luck!