Musings at Altitude

So many things to say, and so little time to blog!

(1) My 14 year old turned 15 yesterday…good grief her mother’s getting old…happy birthday sweetie!

(2) My loving, caring, and very special wife mowed the lawn on Friday based on a weather forecast that called for horrendous weather over the weekend…as with any plan based on weather, instead of rain we had wonderful sunshine…but thank you Denise for planning ahead and allowing me to be lazy!

(3) My granddaughter has decided that mobility is a good thing and she’s rapidly gone from “just sitting there”, to rolling and low crawling, and now to pulling herself up and being just one more stable leg away from running around the house…get ready…here comes trouble!

(4) And on the exact opposite end of the spectrum, our just over 3 week old grandson, who weighs just slightly more than a 5 pound dumbbell, has decided that these first few weeks and then months of his life ought to be spent chillin’…very much so…and I can’t argue with him…I long for just the same position!

(5) When I finish my travels next week, I’ll have been on 5 different airlines in the last 3 weeks – Alaska, United, Frontier, Continental, and Delta; I could have had American too, but I decided enough is enough; during these flights, during the flights thus far, I’ve had to pay fees of $3, $5, $6, and $15; I decided not to pay the $10 for the movie; I’ve learned my lesson now…no food and certainly no drinks on the airlines anymore, unless I’m fortunate enough to be up in business or first class (which is happening much less frequently)…also, no movies (I’ll use my iPod); but I’ll still pay for the checked bag ($15) so I don’t have to lug it around with me; and to rub in the fees, the news reported this evening that the airlines have made $1.1B in revenue on baggage fees…we certainly won’t see the end of that anytime soon.

Once again, so many things, and so little time to blog!

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On this Mother’s Day, I want to give a special tribute to the awesome Mom’s we have in our family.  Enjoy!

To a new Mom and her Daughter:

To an even newer Mom and her Son:

To a Grandmother and her Granddaughter:

To a Grandmother and her Grandson:

To a Great-Grandmother and her Great-Granddaughter:

To a Mom, her Daughter, and her Granddaughter:

A Mother’s Son (but where’s the Mom?):

And Aunt and her Nephew (oops…she’s not a Mother!):

And Aunt and her Niece (these just accidentally keep popping in there!):

A Mom and her Daughter:

The one thing that is so obvious in all these pictures is the love that is shown from the Mom’s to those who so much depend on that love.

And one final picture, in tribute to those Mom’s who have gone on before us, shared their love so easily and perfectly, and then left early to make sure everything was ready for when the rest of us joined them in eternal celebration.  We miss you Mom.  I know you are sharing your love with kids all over heaven right now:

Each and every Mom has touched my life in immeasurable ways.  To all of you, I thank you and I love you!

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Tonight was another one of those rare and yet very special conversations between me and my 21 year old son:

Matt:  “I want to be just like you Dad”.

Me:  “You want to be a stud?”

Matt:  “No, I want to type real fast.”

That pretty much launched the entire table into laughter.

Not to long ago, we had another conversation that went something like this:

Me:  “I’m thinking about running for Governor of Colorado.”

Matt:  “Really?”

Me:  “Seriously.  Would you vote for me?”

Matt:  “It depends on who you’re running against.”

I’m not sure I can ask for any more.  After all, he’s right.  I do type fast.  And who knows, I, too, might vote for the other person running for Governor.

Maybe he’s like me after all!

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How long has it been since you’ve heard this song?

It’s Over!

It’s Friday, and IT’S OVER!!!!

My 9 days of pure torture are over!

The enormous pressure on my brain has already eased during the flight back to Colorado!

The smile has already returned just knowing that for the next few weeks I can focus on business growth and nurturing those that are doing the real work of the business!

I can only handle so much of the process discussions and deep dives on the inner workings of a company.  And in these last two weeks where I had 9 straight days of such deep dives, about 8 and 1/2 of those days fell into that category of “too many”.  I’m not sure I had a single creative thought in two weeks.  I’m absolutely certain that I added no value to at least 8 days of the 9 days of intense conversations.

But it’s over; let’s call it a day; sorry that it had to end this way!

OK, maybe not.  I’m ecstatic that it had to end this way!

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My 14 year old (who turns 15 on Monday) said I have to cease and desist using “it’s almost Friday” because that phrase is protected for her by copyright.  I chuckled at that, and I need to remind her that I did indeed attribute that phrase and this timing to her back on April 7th with my blog called Perspective.  So I’m pretty I’m covered in a court of law, or at least I better be covered in some form of family court.  If not, I’ll have to exercise my parental rights and tell her to “get real”!

The good news is that it really is almost Friday this time!  After spending 8 of the last 9 days in headache fueling, intensely focused, day-long discussions, tomorrow is only a half day (if that) and then I’m back to dreaming and driving business rather than tuning the engines of the business.

Don’t get me wrong…engine tuning is important…we need to go further than ever today on the fuel we have for the business engines.  But good grief…spending 1/26th of a year all at one time staring at the engine components has convinced me that I always, from this point forward, need someone very trusted and very experienced to stare at that engine for me.  Hopefully that person will be able to reach their hands down into that engine and tune it; but if not, they’ll know exactly what step to take next to get that tuner in there!  I know for sure that I’m not the one that should be looking under that hood and staring at that engine.  When I look under the hood (of a business or an actual car!), I can say one of two things – (1) “hey, cool looking engine”; or (2) “hey, looks like you need some windshield wiper fluid”.  I’m certainly not qualified to say anything else!  And even if I was, after staring at that engine for a while I’d have such a massive headache that anything I said would be absolutely useless to fixing any problems that engine may have.

So, it is almost Friday, and I’m greatly looking forward to getting back to racing the car rather than tuning the engine!

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By mid morning yesterday, after a day and a half of flow charts and process discussions, I was fried.  Still am actually.  This is tough, even though very much needed.

So at lunch, I was desperately seeking distractions.  For the first time in two years, I was actually looking forward to our weekly senior executive call because it would get me out of the deep dive on processes and get me focused on something different.  Even though the executive staff calls fry me in a very different way, any relief from the congested conference rooms and the process discussions would be so greatly appreciated. 

As 1:00 pm approached (the time for the call), I got excited because I knew I’d get relief.  At 10 minutes till, I sent out an email asking for the dial in number and agenda because nothing had arrived just yet.  At 5 minutes till, I got the worst possible news ever…the 1:00 pm call had been postponed till later that evening so those of us in these process discussions could continue with the task at hand!  OUUUUCCCCCCHHHHHH!!!  Good grief that hurt.  I was in deep, emotional pain.

I quickly collected myself and went into options mode.  I needed a distraction and diversion, and I needed it bad.  Within minutes, I found out quickly that other leaders of our company also expected that call at 1:00 pm.  That gave me a window because they too had their calendars clear and expectations of a meeting.  So I called up to our headquarters and pleaded with the single person that could ease my pain (and set up that distraction) and begged her to tell the boss that I was about to explode and needed to focus on something else for a while.

Amazingly (or actually not so amazingly), within minutes of that cry for help, I received a meeting notification and the conference call instructions for a meeting that would start in 5 minutes!  The wave of relief just flooded my body!  I rushed to the coffee bar, got my coffee, found a conference room, dialed into the conference bridge and told my boss I loved her for responding so quickly to my dire situation of near mental melt down in those process discussions.

She laughed.  I laughed.  And for the next 2+ hours, we talked about the forest and not the trees and got things done for the good of the $1.3B enterprise.

Today, it’s back to the process review grind.  But I am so grateful for leaders of big enterprises that recognize near melt down conditions and value their team members enough to provide those desperately needed diversions and distractions.  That 2+ hour session yesterday saved me!

For now anyway!

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I really don’t believe it (that it’s almost Friday), but I had to try it out since that’s the way my 14 year old gets through her week in great anticipation of the weekend.  Of course she does it because of a big game or something special that’s occurring which keeps her highly motivated from Monday on.  For me, I do it to trick my brain (which is now mush) into believing that something magical is going to happen; thus, I should stay alert and engaged even when all sensors are shutting down because of numbing effect of these day long meetings.

In reality, it’s only Tuesday and I’m whooped.  This is my 6th straight business day with various all day meetings, and even though I’ve been selectively evading some of the sessions at times, the overall effort to focus has destroyed my creativity and reduced my passions to a mere pittance of what they normally are.

To top it off, this week I decided to save money and not rent a car, so I can’t sneak out to Starbucks and feed my caffeine habit with my normal quad grande soy with whip caramel machiato.  Bad move on my part.  I needed that car for both caffeine and survival.  I get neither. 

Maybe they’ll boot me off this business island?

Probably not…I’m not that lucky!

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I had 4, day long meetings last week.  It would have been 5, but thanks to the airlines, I couldn’t get there for the first day of the week.  But 4 was plenty!

After 18 hours at home (yep, that’s it), I’m now out in the Washington DC area for 5 more day long meetings this week.  The airlines weren’t nearly as nice to me and got me here on time, so I have no excuse but to show up this time for all 5 days.

I’d be lying if I said I enjoyed these types of sessions.  I’m a burst kind of guy.  I need 2 hour sessions that get something done, and then a long walk or a drive to a Starbucks for some sanity.  Day long meetings with breaks every two to three hours wear me out mentally and physically, and rarely get to any tangible results.

In the 18 hours that I was home though, I got to eat sushi for dinner, watch hockey with the girls, wash clothes for this next trip, hold the newest member of the family (my 2 week old grandson that should be getting out of the hospital Tuesday – yeah!), get my spiritual reservoir filled, and yes, visit Starbucks.  Since 7 of those hours were spent sleeping, those other 11 hours were packed tight and an incredible thrill!

Wouldn’t it be cool if all of life could be scripted in that same way?  Moving from one thing to another with different needs being met through different 1 to 2 hour chunks of time.  And after every specific chunk, a quick review and then decision on that next chunk to optimize the passion and to maximize the results.

Come to think of it, why can’t it be?  Why do we have to script day long (and even week long) meetings that strain the brain to the point that nothing but mush comes out anyway?

We need passion meters in every meeting and anytime the meter dips below “sheer excitement”, the meeting ought to be halted and everyone diverted to something motivating that needs to be done before joining back together to continue the meeting.  In fact, every meeting ought to be focused on something that drives passion.  If not, why have the meeting?  Even tough issues can be addressed in a motivated and passionate way.

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I want to thank everyone for the awesome suggestions for what I should get Denise as a way to kiss up for all the perminopausal musings I’ve had lately.  Those gifts include:

• the Hope diamond
• a trip to Vegas
• a “freakin big” rock
• install the address marker (she got the marker last Mother’s Day and I haven’t quite installed it yet)
• an ice sculpture

Now I must admit, I may very well do the first 3 just to soften the paybacks that I know are coming.  I won’t get to the fourth one till later in May, so that won’t buy me any time (an IOU right now don’t cut it).  But I’m very intrigued by that ice sculpture suggestion.  That does indeed serve two purposes – (1) for those few minutes that the image is still viewable, it would bring beauty to our home; and (2) as it melts (very quickly because of the heat generated by the one the gift is destined for), it will cool off the sun-like temperatures of the PMW and allow her for maybe just a moment to feel that same sense of relief that someone in Phoenix experiences going from 120 degrees outside to 78 degrees inside.  Ahhhhhhh. 

I still need more suggestions though, so feel free to chime in with another couple if you could.  Quantity may be much more important than quality right now.  At a minimum, lots of gifts would occupy some time (while she’s opening them) which would prevent (at least for those moments) any retribution from occurring!

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I’ve been deeply involved in day long sessions for the last 3 days, and they wear me out.  It’s hard to focus on anything when the day is done.  It reminds me of those very intense, months-long proposal sessions where you get the head aches from so intensely looking at something and then you are completely fried when it’s finally over.  And I still have today and then all of next week as well, with the 5 day meeting next week about 4,000 miles away from here.

But I wanted to share one thing this morning.  After all the scrutiny, all the bureaucracy, all the critical assessment of what the operating companies in our billion+ dollar enterprise are doing, last night I was reminded of what makes this company so very special.  As I went up to shake the hand of one of our board members who had just recently lost his wife, he embraced me in a big hug and said, “Thank you for the prayers”.  As we hugged, I whispered, “You and your wife were being raised up in prayer all over the country”.  He said, “I know”.  And he smiled.

For all the struggles I have at times with the things going on and the changes being made, that hug, that love, those tears, and that smile made everything else so irrelevant.

In that short embrace last night, I remember now why I joined this company.  I remember now why we as a collective team on an incredible journey are so special.  I remember now why all those other irritating things are so small in comparison to the real story within our story.

It’s good to be reminded at times, isn’t it.

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