Musings at Altitude

I’m sitting out in Gaithersburg, MD, tonight, and I’ve watched with amusement the news coverage of the vote in the House of Representatives today on the bailout bill.  I’m no longer stunned when politics enter critical decisions in our country.  I’m also no longer stunned when any of our politicians blame their actions or their […]

I was reminded this weekend of how mobile and how connected we really are.  I finally got home after an exciting adventure with the airlines on Friday evening, and fortunately, I was home about 15 minutes before my 14 year old got home from her first homecoming game.  I rushed home from the airport to […]

I’m still on my journey home to Colorado Springs from Washington DC.  This 3 hour flight from DC to Denver and then a 20 minute connection from Denver to Colorado Springs has instead taken 5 hours from DC to Denver (had to divert to Colorado Springs for fuel) and now a 2 hour wait for […]

It’s been an interesting business year for me (a gross understatement), and I wanted to quickly share some business tips that come from this year of learning: (1) when you ask for things from your business units that require significant work, make sure you acknowledge receipt, show appreciation for the work, and then use what […]

We had a night full of firsts on Monday night when my 5 week old granddaughter went to her first hockey game and my 14 year old got her first high fives and autographs from her favorite pro hockey players. Well tonight, the feminine foursome in my family ranging in age from pre-menopausal to just […]

This was an incredible night of firsts: (1) first professional hockey game for the granddaughter (2) first national anthem for the granddaughter (3) first time the granddaughter was nursed in the front row right against the glass at a hockey game (4) first time the granddaughter did the YMCA at a hockey game (5) first […]

Every now and then, one specific topic doesn’t come up, but many things run through my mind and deserve at least some focus in my musings.  In this case, I have several thoughts I’d like to share: (1) One of my favorite scripture readings is – “But those who hope in the Lord will renew […]

One of the great challenges we face today is the dramatic change that is going to occur in our organization, and I worry (probably way too much) about all the different things that can cause us to halt our progress or cause friction in the change process that isn’t needed.  In so many organizations, we […]

I wrote last night about “corporate heart” and my emotion flowed about how those with extreme logic will sometimes espouse that logic at the expense of trust and empowerment.  As I continued to think through what corporate heart really meant, I kept coming back to the corporate heartbeat and realized this morning that every corporate heart […]

I’ve mentioned several times that we’re going through change now in our company, much of that change as a response to the enormous growth that we’ve experienced over the last 5 years or so.  Unbelievably (but oh so true) we woke up one morning and we were a billion dollar corporation, and that growth from […]