37,000' is where I do my best thinking
I’ve mentioned in the past that I struggle mightily in staff jobs. It goes back to my military days when I learned the difference between mission and staff components. Mission guys executed. Staff guys organized, trained and equipped for that execution. Both jobs were critical. If the staff guys didn’t do their jobs right, the […]
Once you finally get to a “yes” or “no”, how many more people do you coordinate with to confirm what you already know is the right answer? And, in seeking that confirmation, is that coordination process for you to feel better about the decision or for the organization to feel involved and accepting of the […]
Oct 10th 2009Life
We had a standoff this morning – 18 year old dog on one side of the street and a young looking, very frisky fox on the other side of the street. The DGD (that’s dad gum dog) had sniffed her way down from the front porch along the edge of the grass to the far […]
Oct 9th 2009Life
It was cold this morning. In the upper 20’s. So cold that when I took the dad gum dog out I wanted to sit down and get my feet (only had socks on) off the concrete front porch. But when I went to sit down, I saw this: It was accompanied by more webs between […]
After two days of monitoring the number of people involved to get a “yes”, I’ve come to the conclusion that bureaucracy (bad bureaucracy that is) is buoyed by the simple statement, “let me run that up the chain and I’ll get back to you”. If bad bureaucracy was a 3-legged stool, one of those legs would […]
Oct 7th 2009Business
As a business development guy by trade and a revenue creation fanatic by heart, I’m becoming obsessed with how many folks have to be involved in any path to “yes”. That “yes” could be for a contract, or for a hire, or for a strategic decision, or for a lunch location. It could be for […]
Like most sports fanatics in this country, I was glued to the TV tonight watching Brett Favre in a purple uniform take on his old team in their classic green and yellow. The media hyped it up big time throughout the week, making sure we all knew that Favre has beaten every other NFL team […]
Oct 4th 2009Life
I’m sitting in the Red Carpet Club in the Denver Airport, watching the activity on the ramp. It amazes me how many things have to come together in near perfect timing to get a plane unloaded, cleaned, and then loaded again for the next flight. This plane came in about 20 minutes ago, and as […]
Oct 3rd 2009Uncategorized
I’ve been struggling with sleep lately, and sleeping in just doesn’t seem possible anymore. But this morning, I was in a deep sleep…one of those special nights where no dreams (or nightmares) are remembered and you feel refreshed. But at 6:26 I was startled by the phone ringing. It was a 703 area code number […]
It’s 3:00 in the morning now. The wind is blowing incredibly hard. It’s a very visible (and audible) indication of change that is coming. In fact, it’s supposed to be more than 20 degrees colder today (as a high) than yesterday. The heater came on just now for the first time in several days. Change […]