My daughter Jessica helped me get sPlan5 the blog started. She pointed me in the direction of WordPress, a free and open source blogging tool. It is the most popular blogging system in use on the web. Well that is where I started. I set up three sites, sPlan5 one of the three. Now I committed to the goal of creating a community that shares ideas inspired by sPlan5 the blog. The only way anyone is going to read this stuff is if this blog can “inspire, delight, inform, educate, be generous, move people, help them to belong and to matter. The goal is to create meaning.” – (quoted text credited to Bernadette Jiwa – http://www.thestoryoftelling.com and author of “Fortune Cookie Principle.”)

So here I am, Jessica pointed me in the right direction and I started planing what to insert into the blog, stuff that will create meaning. And then (insert pause) I get an E Mail from Amazon telling me about a book I might be interested in. The book is “The Year Without Pants” – WORDPRESS.COM and the future of work by Scott Berkun. Coincidence? Probably but what the heck. I’m intrigued and in under a minute I’m starting to read the book on my Kindle app. In my attempt to keep my posts under 500 words let me get specific, what I learned so far from reading “The Year Without Pants” is…. wait for it, wait for it…

EVERYONE who works for WordPress, before they start doing the job they are hired for, spends their first few weeks working in Technical Support. They spend their first few weeks as “Happiness Engineers.” HERE IS MY AH HA MOMENT – What if all companies started their new hires (YES EVEN THE NEW CEO) in the technical service or customer support area for the first four weeks? I’ve spent my life in the financial services industry and I KNOW it would be a good idea for that industry.

TAKE TWO MINUTES TO PONDER THIS….

(Two minutes later) I am going to trust that if you are reading this you don’t need me to point out the obvious about how this one simple idea would change Product, IT, Finance, Marketing and Employee decisions. If you don’t have an ah hah moment of your own here then you’ve got to get yourself a different blog.

I am going to end this by asking a favor from anyone who is engaged with me in the ideal of sPlan5….. NEVER let me start anything without first spending time thinking about what technical support or customer service will look like in our designs. We can make it beautiful and simple.

Our customers will understand the offering.
Our customers will understand what is expected of them.
And what we create will make their world better.

Where do we go from here?

Thank you to Bernadette Jiwa and Scott Berkun for your inspiration.