Greetings from Tucson, Arizona, where it is sunny and a delightful 68 degrees. By contrast, Chicago, which I left on Friday for this brief vacation, had a high of 8 degrees on Saturday, and a low of -7 degrees. Brrrrrrr.
As someone who is constantly "searching" (in my case, for perfect client service), I thought it would be useful to search for a common theme underlying what we do. I asked my son for help.
We tried other tools as well.
Here's what we learned.
Our blawgs are about 
. We share our ideas with clients and others in order to stimulate thought and dialogue. The discourse that follows strengthens our ideas. With that, here are some blawg posts that reflect creativity, thought, provocation, stimulation.
Let me begin by mentioning two people I spent time with this past week. Gerry Riskin, author or Amazing Firms Amazing Practices provides a global perspective on the diversity challenge faced by law firms around the world. Michelle Golden, who writes Golden Practices, provided some great career advice for marketers.
Matt Homann at the [non]billable hour is the source of two terrific posts, one direct from Matt and one from his guest blogger Ron Baker. In his own right, Matt provided a Great Client Brainstorming Tip. Matt's guest blogger Ron Baker authored a very provocative post positing that Attorneys Aren't Knowledge Workers. Or are they? Kudos to Matt for extending the invitation to Ron Baker, a giant in the area of Value Billing.
While almost every post from Dennis Kennedy prompts a great deal of thought, his retrospective look at blogging "What Would I Do Differently If I Started Blogging Today?" provides lessons for bloggers of levels of experience. Taking from from the blawg world to the real one, Ernie the Attorney continues his posts on the difficult road to recovery for his beloved New Orleans with the good news that the Jazz Fest is going forward in late April and early May. Every time I read Ernie's first hand accounts of the city's recovery, I am reminded to count my blessings.
The Greatest American Lawyer continues his challenge to orthodoxy with his post on integrating skype into his arsenal. And my friend Dan Hull who authors the aptly named What About Clients continues his periodic challenge to all of us to write better. Dan also had a wonderful post on negativity in the profession, engagingly captioned Law Profession Negativity In All Its Forms, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Half Full Cups, Defendants. JS Logan with some nice insights on customer satisfaction .
In his Legal Marketing Blog, Tom Kane weighs in this week with some additional thoughts on the very important topic of client satisfaction interviews. It is such an important topic that every entry that makes you think about it is very important. Nathan Burke asks us to consider whether our law firm web sites inspire client confidence in a terrific lawfirmblogging post. Kevin Thompson at Cyberlaw Central raises a truly profound question about detecting the tone of our emails, a question of great significance to client service. In that same vein, mediator Diane Levin, author of MediationNewsOnline, asks us to look at our emails in her post Architect or Arsonist: using email to build not burn bridges. And on a macro level, Bruce MacEwen of Adam Smith, Esq. asks the extraordinarily provocative question "Do You Have A Chief Strategy Officer?" In a compelling manner, he then analyzes the importance of being able to answer that question affirmatively. Bruce also weighs in with the must-read post What P & G Teaches. The story reveals how business is changing the internal value placed on managers competing with one another and focusing instead on the value of collaboration. In the eat-what-you-kill world of law firm compensation, the moral of the story should challenge convention.
David Maister, new to the blogging world but long a leader in the world of thinking, posted a reprise of something he wrote a while ago, but timeless and inspiring. The post in his Passion, People and Principles is entitled, simply, The Managing Partner's Speech. Many of us would love to work for a partner who was able to give the speech genuinely.
In the world of ideas from the substantive law arena, check out this post from the Health Care Law Blog asking "Should Consumers of Health Care Have More Rights To Protect Their Medical Information? " Tough question. (By the way, kudos to Bob Coffield for his work as host of last week's Blawg Review). From The Trademark Blog comes this analysis of how Opposition to DYKES ON BIKES Opens A Pandora's Box in that realm. Also in the trademark world comes this from Likelihood Of Confusion: Trademark McCrisis? (Or McArabia). Kevin Thompson of Cyberlaw Central provides this summary of an important cyberlaw case in Domain name dispute: Digital Telemedia, Inc. vs. C.I. Host, Inc. The case involves a recent domain name dispute where the Plaintiff lost its bid to have a domain name transferred on a summary judgment motion. It's interesting because one of the Defendants has prior common law rights, but the actual use of the domain name may still have been infringing. Professor Stephen Bainbridge asks a question most CEOs hope is answered affirmatively--Is SOX Unconstitutional?--in his Professor Bainbridge.com.
The general world of blogging is chock full of ideas. Check out this post in Scobleizer about search engine lies. The title is way cool: Brrreeeport crazy and more search engine lies. Thanks to last week's host Bob Coffield for submitting this, along with this comment:
I thought you might want to mention Robert Scoble's interesting experiment using Technorati tags and a fictitious term "Brrreeeport". It shows how one person can impact the way search is done on the internet. It has been the top search/tag on Technorati all week long. Also you might want to include a reference and a technorati tag to brrreeeport in blawg review since it will then get picked up and get some air time online. I've gotten a number of hits to my blog just by posting the quick post that is attached to this submission.
In the food for thought, weirdness category, check out this post from f/k/a. I, for one, do not ever want to be "weird tagged."
Its always nice to end with a question, so I look again to JS Logan. Check out his post Making Sense of What, Why, And How. Which of those questions is most important?
Finally, a thought about US--the blawggers of the world. I read many, many posts to prepare this review. My reaction? Wow! There are an awful lot of smart, thoughtful people out there. My emphasis is on the smart and thoughtful, but check out this post about the "lot" part of my reaction--from Bill Gratsch at Blawg.org. Now look at the future in this Concurring Opinion post. The quality of our ideas will be a significant factor in the future of blawging.
Ideas, the spice of life. So long from sunny and warm Tucson. In a couple of hours, I'll be back in the cold Windy City.
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