Dear fellow Thomas Nelson employees,

I need your help. First, however, I have a confession.

I’ve been a digital arm chair quarterback with a flurry of ideas about what we need to do digitally as a company. It’s nice being an arm chair quarterback. You only have 10% of the information, but in your mind make the right call nearly every time. There are no stats to prove you wrong.

Then, I was yanked out of my very comfortable Lazy Boy and placed on the field. I have 300 pound tackles and jumpy linebackers starring me down and no remote control to change the channel. I need your help!!

Thomas Nelson recently provided me with a new responsibility for our company’s digital strategy. Along with Bob Edington, his digital team, Mike Hyatt and my colleagues at Thomas Nelson, we will define and execute our digital strategy going forward. What an important and exciting challenge. I am honored to be a part of it.

So, how can you help? I want to hear your thoughts on digital.

I know that there are a lot of ideas out there from experienced quarterbacks and maybe even other arm chair quarterbacks like myself. If you want to share your thoughts or ideas with me, please send an e-mail to my assistant, Janet Sanders, at jsanders@thomasnelson.com.

Janet will set up a time for us to meet. All I ask is that you outline your thoughts and send them in an e-mail to Janet and me prior to our meeting. I will listen.

This is how our digital strategy will unfold:

Step 1: Listen to the digital team. My first step was to hear the digital team’s thoughts and learn from them. I will be spending much more time with them. This is a very dedicated team that has tremendous passion for their work and contribution they are making to Nelson’s mission. It is amazing to see all they do; they inspire me.

Step 2: Listen to others internally. That’s where you come in and why I am writing this.

Step 3: Listen to the world class leaders and companies outside of Nelson. We will find the best thinkers and build on their knowledge for our strategy.

Step 4: Build an executable strategy.

Step 5: Execute the strategy and continually experiment and tweak the strategy. Change will be constant. We will celebrate and build on the successes. We will learn from the failures.

I will be blogging on what I learn and the strategy as it forms. This will clarify my thinking, communicate what is being learned and provide a forum for others’ feedback. Feel free to challenge my learnings and thinkings.

I invite you to be a part of the conversation.