January 2026 Content Wrap-Up

by Christian Buckley · Published January 30, 2026 · Updated March 1, 2026

Another new year, and another collection of everything that was….from a content-generation perspective….from the prior month. To sum it up: January was about recovery. For those not in-the-know, I’ve had some health issues over the past couple of years, and so I scheduled some long-needed surgery at the end of December, which led to a couple of weeks of recovery to kick off the new year. And, of course, just as I was recuperating from that, I caught that flu that had been going around…followed by a bout of laryngitis. It’s been a fun month.

Lots of rest, some time off from leading workshops — but then right back into it. In fact, I was running workshops through most of the laryngitis….which I hear is exactly what doctors want you to do: talk a lot. I did manage to make the Top 3-percenter list for Sessionize in 2025, which is always nice to see. I’ve made the list a few times in the past, but there was a gap as I slowed down on my presenting for a couple of years. But I’m hoping to ramp things back up in 2026!

We hit the one-year anniversary of our dear little Taco passing away, and Kendal and I went out to grab a taco dinner on the day before (because it was “Taco Tuesday”). I’m still thinking about him every day. We’ve placed two photos of him – one of him young, and one elderly – amongst the pictures of the kids and grandkids on the console in the living room so that we can see his bright eyes every day.

February and March look to be jam-packed with workshops. I’m mostly teaching clients about AI, and I’m actually having a blast. Packing as many into the schedule as we can before the spring conference season opens up, with MVP Summit happening at the end of March, followed by M365 Community Conference in April in Orlando. And it doesn’t slow down…

Articles

Quite a few “AI-adjacent” topics on the article list this month, but they are more business and marketing focused than the other AI content, so I’m branching off. I’ve been taking a pause from my CollabTalk Podcast recordings, which has given me more time and publishing space for more articles.

If These 25 Jobs Are the Future of Work, These Are the Skills That Matter [LinkedIn]
What Happened to Social Media’s Impact? [blog]
The State of Digital Marketing in 2026 [blog]
When Beliefs Form Social Topology [blog]
What Vibe Working Reveals About Decision-Making [blog]
Stop Treating Social Platforms Like Billboards [blog]
Why “Doing More with Less” Has Become the Default Mandate for IT [blog]
The Hidden Cost of “Doing More with Less” in IT [blog]
What Changes When Ideas Are Cheap? [blog]
Summary of Guardians of M365 Governance Ep.25 [blog]

End of year CollabTalk TweetJam Panel

I’ve been tooling with a few ideas to rejuvenate the tweetjam model, but I think the format that was once such a fantastic format for networking ideas and building engagement has now become diffused and split between the various platforms. But my plan is to organize at least quarterly live panels and bring a handful of experts on to discuss a topic in depth – while live tweeting the questions and responses. We’ll see how that goes in March when we focus on SharePoint to celebrate its 25th birthday.

The CollabTalk TweetJam’s 2025 M365 Mega Recap & 2026 Bold Bets [blog]

Content Strategy

More ideas for content creation. If you are a creator, this series is for you.

Content Strategy: Content as Organizational Intelligence [blog]
Content Strategy: Adopting the “Atomic Content” Framework [blog]
Content Strategy: Crowdsourcing Content Ideas from Your Audience [blog]
Content Strategy: The Content Retirement Problem [blog]
Content Strategy: When to Repurpose and When to Start Over [blog]

Articles on AI Topics

And here we are with AI-specific topics. Ideas for these posts come from conversations, articles, news and videos.

How “Vibe Working” Is Quietly Changing How We Work [Smarter Consulting blog]
Copilot Isn’t Becoming a Marketplace. It’s Becoming the Broker. [blog]
Why Most AI Projects Fail Before They Start [blog]

Project Failure Files

Sharon and I continue to pump out the weekly leadership and management development shows every Monday morning at 9am Pacific. if you’ve not yet caught an episode, be sure to check it out!

Project Failure Files: Promoting Without Assessing Leadership Skills [blog]
Project Failure Files: Not Managing Up [blog]
Project Failure Files: Ignoring Career Development [blog]
Project Failure Files: The Micromanagement Trap [blog]

#MVPbuzzChat

Also happening every Monday is my interview series with Microsoft MVPs across various technologies and from different regions in the world. I’m always happy to connect with fellow MVPs and get to now them, and have them share their insights on community and technology with all of you.

#MVPbuzzChat 342 with Pat Petersen [blog]
#MVPbuzzChat 343 with Anton Boyko [blog]
#MVPbuzzChat 344 with Frank Falvey [blog]
#MVPbuzzChat 345 with Tino Rabe [blog]

Music

And every Saturday, I post some of my favorite selections from favorite music artists. Enjoy!

Blue Plate Special: The Strokes [blog]
Blue Plate Special: Brian Eno (Part 1) [blog]
Blue Plate Special: Brian Eno (Part 2) [blog]
Blue Plate Special: Robert Palmer [blog]
Blue Plate Special: This Picture [blog]

That’s it for me. Need to get back to work now. Ciao.