Learfield CEO Clyde Lear started blogging in March of 2006. And he’s been very consistent since then, writing or rewriting every post. This morning he asked me to come to his office to help him add a video to a post he was working on.

He shot the video by setting his Casio Exilim on the window sill (to get the best light) and ad libbing his post in one take. By the time I got there, he had the file on the desktop of his iMac and just wanted to know best way to trim the front and back. I showed him how to do that in iMovie and then gave him the login to my YouTube account.

You can watch the video on his blog if you’re interested. I think the quality is pretty darned good.

Equally impressive –to me– is Clyde’s use of his blog and –in this instance– video to communicate something to the entire company. This is the next best thing to him walking into every employee’s office and talking to them, one on one. The entire process took maybe 30-40 minutes.

So there are two things at work here. First, our CEO wants to let us know why he does the things he does. He cares that we get it from him “directly.” Second, mastering the tools and skills needed to do this.

Am I making too much of this? Maybe. But had he had someone write (and rewrite) a script that he “delivered” to a crew who gave it to some editors who ran it past some lawyers and PR types… the message would have been a different one.

There’s a lot of interest in the scheduled execution of Dennis Skillicorn, scheduled for one minute past midnight. I assume that’s because it’s been a few years since Missouri’s last execution.

In March of 2000, I witnessed the execution of James Hampton. Here’s an excerpt from the case facts on MissouriDeathRow.com (a site I maintain for our company):

“At some point during their drive Hampton learned from his police scanner that the authorities were searching for Ms. Keaton. According to his trial testimony, Hampton decided to kill Ms. Keaton after learning that the police were looking for him. Hampton drove Ms. Keaton to the farm of the real estate agent from whom he had learned about Ms. Keaton. Hampton blindfolded Ms. Keaton and took her into a wooded area about one-half mile from the real estate agent’s farm. He then killed Ms. Keaton by repeatedly striking her in the head with a hammer. He then buried her and burned all of her belongings.”

Note the similarity (to me) of the final minutes of Skillicorn’s victim:

“They (Dennis Skillicorn and Allen Nicklasson) directed Drummond to exit I-70 at the Highway T exit. They proceeded four miles on to County Road 202 to a secluded area where they ordered Drummond to stop his vehicle. As Nicklasson prepared to take Drummond through a field toward a wooded area, Skillicorn demanded Drummond’s wallet. Knowing Nicklasson had no rope or other means by which to restrain Drummond and that Nicklasson carried a loaded .22 caliber pistol, Skillicorn watched as Nicklasson lead Drummond toward a wooded area. There, Nicklasson shot Drummond twice in the head. Skillicorn acknowledged hearing two shots from the woods and that Nicklasson returned having “already done what he had to do.” Drummond’s remains were found eight days later.”

The controversy surrounding Missouri’s execution protocol notwithstanding, I’ll always remember Hampton’s final moments as seeming much less terrifying than that blindfolded walk into the woods.