It’s going to be one of the strangest parting shots. My one last project as I transit out of Decision Theater is the redesign of the present web site.

Ridiculous?

The typical questions I get asked go like this:

• Why do you care?
• Why would they want you to manage this?
• Isn’t it odd, for the outgoing Communications Manager to have anything to say about an organization that’s changing direction?

My short answer is: I’ve been asked to do equally bizarre things. The Decision Theater web site, for all its visual appeal has been something I’ve wanted to update for a while. It sends a message of  ‘old media’ when we actually employ some really advanced tools and processes –from GIS data and visualization, to brainstorming tools, to interactive exercises. I began the blog, Light Bulb Moments ( and a podcast and a microblog, and white papers and…) partly as a solution to fill this gap, and partly to communicate quicker, link better, embed more and aspects of Decision Theater that tended to get buried in a static web site. If things go well, the new site will be extremely dynamic.

In case you’re wondering what  ‘transit out of the Decision Theater’ meant, it’s an euphemism I use very cautiously for:  ‘my job was eliminated due to budget cuts.’

Regretful? Yes. But I have started on a path of new media and communications that does not leave time for looking in the rear-view mirror. Ergo, spending my last days at ASU looking at what’s emerging, even in a place I say goodbye to.