It’s Monday, January 9, and the last bowl game of the 2011 college football season is about to wrap up this evening – Alabama versus LSU. I am a huge fan of college football, so it’s only fitting that I kick off my first blog post of the New Year with the transcript from one of the best football halftime speeches ever. It happens to be from the movie – “Friday Night Lights.” In Coach Gain’s words – “Can you live in that moment, as best you can, with clear eyes and love in your heart? With joy in your heart?”

May 2012 be a brilliant year for you, one where your reach for perfection is measured by how you live moment by moment with “clear eyes and love and joy in your heart.”

Happy 2012!

Coach Gaines (Friday Night Lights Halftime Speech): VYN4jnA8fKs

Well it’s real simple: You got two more quarters and that’s it.

Now most of you have been playing’ this game for ten years. And you got two more quarters and after that most of you will never play this game again as long as you live. Now, ya’ll have known me for awhile, and for a long time now you’ve been hearing’ me talk about being perfect.

Well I want you to understand something’. To me, being perfect is not about that scoreboard out there. It’s not about winning. It’s about you and your relationship to yourself and your family and your friends.

Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know that you didn’t let them down, because you told them the truth. And that truth is that you did everything that you could. There wasn’t one more thing that you could’ve done.

Can you live in that moment, as best you can, with clear eyes and love in your heart? With joy in your heart?

If you can do that gentleman then you’re perfect.

I want you to take a moment. And I want you to look each other in the eyes. I want you to put each other in your hearts forever, because forever’s about to happen here in just a few minutes.

I want you to close your eyes, and I want you to think about Boobie Miles, who is your brother. And he would die to be out there on that field with you tonight. And I want you to put that in your hearts.

Boys, my heart is full. My heart’s full.

1. Art & Copy – Released in 2009, this documentary gives you glimpse into the advertising world and some of the most influential creative people in advertising that have impacted consumers during the past 50 years.

2. Helvetica – Released in 2007, this documentary explores the way typefaces, “fonts” affect our lives – especially one font – Helvetica.

3. Objectified. – Released in 2009, this documentary explores the product design process and the creative people behind products that we use everyday from toothbrushes to furniture to tech gadgets.

Intrigued? Looking to be inspired? If so, I would highly recommend that you check out these three documentaries and explore the power of creativity and design for yourself. All are available on amazon.com. Enjoy!

In a large and decentralized organization like U-M, it takes a team effort across the institution. This team includes marketers and communicators that come from our 19 schools and colleges and various business units like undergraduate admissions, financial aid, student services, etc. who work together to move the institution forward toward common branding and marketing goals.

The Communicators’ Forum at the University of Michigan is an opportunity to bring hundreds of our key marketers and communicators from around campus together for a time of relationship-building, networking, and education around important branding, marketing, and communications topics for our institution. It provides us with an opening to learn and grow together as a group. This internal group represents an extremely important audience to me. Like any audience that we are trying to reach and influence, I have to provide transformative experiences in order to gain impact and have influence.

For me, bringing hundreds of our key marketing and communications people off campus to spend a morning in an incredible environment like the Google offices in Ann Arbor was the perfect transformative experience. Not only did we have the experience of being in a really cool, high-energy space like Google, we also had the unique opportunity to meet with and learn from leading Google experts from around the country. They enlightened us on where the web is going and what we need to do to continue to meet and exceed the expectations of the many external audiences that we are trying to reach through digital communications.

My challenge with the next Communicators’ Forum – try to top the last Communicators’ Forum at Google. The bar has been raised. The expectations have increased. I need to deliver another transformative experience at our next Communicators’ Forum in June. Sounds like a familiar challenge that we all deal with day in and day out in the wonderful world of higher education marketing. Have any great ideas? I would love to hear them. Thanks!

They equate the advertising process to watching our children grow up. As parents, we often don’t notice the physical growth that our children are going through each day. Occasionally though, over the course of a given year, we may notice small changes that are happening with them. The punch line – determining how much your child has grown in the last 24 hours is like evaluating the effect of being exposed to a single ad.

It is through the process and power of repetition, that small increments will add up over time. Eventually these repeated small increments can produce major perceived differences between brands and products in the minds of consumers. From day-to-day though, we are rarely aware of the process taking place.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

In my experiences in leading, managing and participating in teams, I’ve discovered a number of variables that lead to the success of a team. Below are five team attributes (from the book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team) that I have tried to use in some form or another in building and maintaining high performing teams.

1. Trust - In the context of the team, trust and confidence must exist around our intentions, our mission, our goals and objectives. We need to be willing to be vulnerable with each other, to be open to input and feedback from each other, and recognize that everyone on the team has something to contribute.

2. Constructive Conflict - I believe that all strong teams and any good relationship for that matter, the ones that last over time, require constructive conflict in order to grow. This is true in marriage, parenthood, friendship, and the workplace as well as with high performing teams. Demonstrating and teaching the emotional intelligence to embrace opposing thoughts and constructive conflict is important to the health and productivity of the team.

3. Commitment - There needs to be a common commitment to achieving the end goal. There needs to be clarity and buy-in from every member of the team. That doesn’t mean there is always consensus and certainty. However, at the end of the day, the team needs to be moving forward together toward that common commitment.

4. Accountability - Goals and milestones need to be tracked, and the team needs to be willing to hold each other accountable for achieving those goals. We must hold each other to a higher standard.

5. Results Oriented - We need to embrace the collective results of the team. It should be an unrelenting, collaborative focus on specific objectives and clearly defined outcomes. The team needs to be achievement and results oriented as a team, not just as individuals.

I am realizing as I get older, and occasionally reflect back on my own life, that there are key moments in my past when someone special came along that was able to change and reshape my life and my perspective on how I should live my life. The perfect person, the right person, the needed person at that right moment who had the ability to change the trajectory of my life in a very positive way. Hal and Arlene have been those influential, special people in my life. They both came along at a significant moment in my college career at NMU that changed me forever.

As a teacher, Hal lived the dream that all teachers wish to live when they start out their careers. He also represents the outcome that all teachers dream of having when they come to the end of their teaching careers. Educators want to make a positive difference in the lives of their students. They want to know that they’ve had that kind of impact. So, it’s especially nice to witness students returning to NMU after many years to show their gratitude and give moving testimonies about their experiences together and the inspiration this teacher, Mr. Dorf, has been for them. Hal has had a significant impact on so many students’ lives over the years, and I am just one of many.

There have been many times since graduating from NMU that I have been asked by different people to describe a teacher from my past (secondary or post secondary) that has had an impact on my life. And the teacher I describe first is Hal Dorf. What did Hal do for me? He gave me confidence. He challenged me to step outside of my comfort zone. He taught me about the world, and encouraged me to get out there and to see it, to experience it, and to live it firsthand. He inspired me. He taught me not just through words, he taught me through actions. He taught me how to be a better human being. He taught me grace. The lessons he taught me about thinking about and looking at the greater picture beyond our little corner of the world are ones that Tiffany (my wife) and I are now giving to our children. So Hal’s influential message is far-reaching beyond the lives of those of us who had the honor of being his students. We are extending that message to our families, our own students and clients, our co-workers and our friends.

Hal and Arlene, on behalf of my entire family – my wife Tiffany, my daughter Lauren and my son Brian – thank you for being there for us and for me. Thank you for living a life of impact on so many.