One of my life's many blessings: my work is engaging and inspiring enough that I'm sipping coffee and skimming Talent Management magazine at 8am on a holiday morning. And a good thing too. Otherwise I might have missed this gem of an article by General Mills vp and chief learning officer Kevin D. Wilde.

In his article Mr. Wilde beautifully summarizes four key principles of frank's Biz Case Toolkit. Whether the project you're pitching is social media, knowledge management, learning and development....whatever the program or project, when you're going for the funding pitch these are four great rules to live by.  1. & 2. Keep it real, keep it direct. (In other words, make sure your project has a true biz need. A biz need that's easily and directly linked to this project.) 3. Keep it familiar, simple. (Avoid jargon. It won't make you look smarter. It'll just distract from your key points.) 4. Top-line your approach: show (without stupifying detail, please) you've thought through the required steps to execute and implement. 

The challenge Mr. Wilde outlines in his article....covering all four of these points in four minutes. (The article title actually gives you only two minutes, which in my experience is more realistic during c-level conversations.) So....which is your biggest growth opportunity: drawing a direct correlation to the business? Cutting out the jargon? Balancing detail and thoroughness?

Lots of great stuff for my brain to digest. (Hopefully yours too.) Perfect for Turkey Day!