Musings at Altitude

I was stationed at the Pentagon from 1985-1988, and when I left, the most awesome gift I received was a picture of the Pentagon in a rearview mirror.  That picture is above.  It was said back then that any good officer and good leader would be the happiest when the Pentagon was in the rearview mirror and their tour of duty there was over.

Back then, I knew exactly what they meant as I left the staff job I had at the Pentagon and headed back into a mission meaningful leadership role.  At that point so early in my career, I was misearable in a job where I felt that the urgency was minimal and the actual mission contribution was slight at best.  When I first received my assignment orders to the Pentagon, I was ecstatic with the opportunity to be at the pinnacle of planning and the home of what was supposed to be the critical budgeting and support planning for those troops in the field.  Unfortunately, what I found at the staff level was bureaucracy beyond belief and years of toil to get anything of meaning done.

In business, I’ve found something very similar – the further you are away from the actual revenue generating activities, the less the urgency and the greater the bureaucracy.  In a start up, the headquarters functions are often times directly tied to the revenue and income generating activities.  As a company grows, the separation widens as more program sites enter the picture and more abstraction occurs between those that serve the clients and those that feed the beast of bureaucracy.  When a company exits “small business” and enters the ranks of “mid size”, the web of bureaucracy is growing faster than the mission needs and the administrative costs tend to outpace the competitive burden that is acceptable.  And finally, when a company exits the mid size growth journey and enters the large size business category, the time to get anything done rivals the Pentagon and those that thrive in such an environment come straight from the Dilbert cartoon clips.

When I left the active military, I promised myself I’d never work in a big company – I’d been influenced too heavily against such a thing by being tormented by the Pentagon at such a young age.  For over eight years I lived up to that promise and I deftly navigated my career through various start up and rapidly growing companies where the policies and process of the bureaucracy were pushed aside to focus on the exciting opportunities on the near horizon.  But then I faced an incredibly tough decision – violate my “no staff” and “no big company” promise to myself or live with the highly unacceptable alternative of working for a new boss who had no understanding of the journey that had been taken.  I chose the former and then slapped myself at least once a quarter from that point forward as the black hole of corporate process slowly sucked me in.

I’ve learned an awful lot during my time on staff throughout my 26 years in the military and business…and I want to share some of those lessons with you:

(1) A staff doesn’t have to be a black hole, but most military and big company staffs end up being that way because the measure of maturity is based on process and not progress.

(2) The depth of the black hole is inversely equivalent to the average years of mission serving experience that exists on the staff.  I remember so vividly how fun it was to work for operational commanders at the Pentagon – they just wanted to get things done – and I remember even more clearly how frustrating it was to work for those that came from other staff jobs and focused primarily on process and quality of packages produced.

(3) The time to process any action through a staff is directly proportional to the breadth of organizational components that exist on a staff.  A staff exists to literally “staff” or coordinate on things that need to be done.  So, anything that flows through an organization for approval and action must by definition be staffed through each organizational component.

(4) When things don’t get done, the obvious answer is “we need more staff”.  That has to be an answer because its that same staff that isn’t getting things done that is thus making a staffing decision in response to things not getting done, and in that answer determining mode they decide that more things would get done by hiring more staff.

(5) Every staff loves to model and every staff can find a model that reflects what they want to be which isn’t necessarily what they ought to be.

(6) And the kicker of them all, every staff I’ve had any visibility into defined the budget process and then approved their own budgets.  Since size of staff and size of budget are two very key items on resumes, why wouldn’t numbers of people and size of budget for any staff function continue to grow so that any functional staff leader can maximize both.

With all this being said, here’s nirvana to me:

— any staff element is headed by someone that was first at the operational and mission serving level

— the staff budget is built by the staff but approved by the organizational components they serve

— if those being served do not feel the value of the service equals the costs being proposed, they have full authority to go elsewhere or to hire their own staff members

— each staff element provides quarterly “staff reports” to those being served no different than the quarterly board meetings required by those business units in the company portfolio

— each staff member being recruited is interviewed by those that will ultimately be served by that staff

— bonuses and pay increases for the staff leaders get vetted and approved by the organizational elements served by that staff

— each staff role is a maximum of 3 years and then the staff leaders must rotate back into a mission serving role

— any assessment of the staff to speed up the process and increase efficiency is provided by experts outside the staff and not being paid by the staff being assessed

— every year, at least 15% of the staff must rotate off of or out of the staff; personnel evaluations should clearly indicate who the least successful members of the staff are and those should be the first ones considered for re-assignment to better fitting jobs

— twice a year, every member of the staff must visit an operational element of the business and brief them on what they do for the business at the staff level

Some would say this just isn’t possible, but I’d beg to differ.  I bet it’s being done somewhere.

That might be my next quest – to find that organization that best reflects nirvana at the staff level to me.  Till then, I’ll keep looking at that picture of the Pentagon in the rearview mirror and realize that the joy I felt in leaving could have been tears of sadness if it had been nirvana.

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Other than about 30 hours at home last weekend, I’ve been on the road for two straight weeks.  I still have one more flight to go, then 70 miles to drive, and then I finally get the peace and serenity that I’m seeking now with 3 days at home before heading out for another flight.  It’s been a fascinating two weeks in business, in the markets, in politics, and in life. 

In business, we had summits and major partner meetings, strategy sessions and anything but strategy discussions, board meetings and senior leadership conferences…in many ways, all of these were influenced by the markets, politics, and life.

In world and national markets, the collapse of major financial institutions intensified and Congress finally stepped in to shore up the markets and rebuild some trust from the American people.  The uncertainty has wreaked havoc for most businesses as the needed capital to expand and grow may no longer be available and the investments that may have been made just months ago may now be put on hold as everyone does a reset and attempts to understand the affects on their current activities and future plans.

In politics, the halo affect from Governor Palin being added to the McCain ticket ended as she performed poorly on a couple of major interviews but then some of the glow came back as she exceeded expectations in the VP debate (expectations were incredibly low).  Senator Obama had pushed his lead out to 8-10 points prior to the debate, but some people think that there still may be a couple of breaths left in the tank for McCain after last night’s debate.  In business and in life, most of us are looking forward and strategizing how a change in administration will affect us.  One thing’s for sure – we’re going to change, and in that change, all of us in some way will be affected.

And in life, my youngest had her first homecoming and my son announced he’s going to be a father.  I was expecting the first and totally unprepared for the second.  I made it through the first, but I’m still coming to grips with the second.  As with the markets and politics, life oftentimes throws us curve balls that catches us on our back legs and unable to swing the bat.  Eventually over time, we’ll adjust and catch up to that curve ball, but it’s never easy.

As I think about all these things during my travels home, I smile at most and then stress over a few, but in all things I get a big kick and a reminder of the beauty of life from my granddaughter.  Here is her message to me and my message to you as I hurry to get on the plane:

It’s so good to keep everything in perspective!

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I participated in a long series of meetings today, and at one point, I heard the following quote – “strategy starts with process.”  Now I fully realize that I’m not a genius (probably confirmed by the fact that I’m typing this just before midnight with less than 4 hours of sleep the night before), but I’m pretty convinced that startegy does not start with process.  In fact, I’d say strategy starts with dialogue and understanding, and then once any of us gain the required knowlege to make sensible decisions, then just enough process to facilitate a strategically significant execution should take place.

 I stand in complete amazement at those who brief strategy and yet never really create or verbalize any strategy.  We suffered through that today.  We heard a wonderfully lengthy “stratgegy plan”, and yet, no strategy was discussed.

I’m on a crusade now.  I’m going to lead an effort to increase the strategic IQ of our organization by at least 100% this next fiscal year.  It won’t be easy though.  We have lots of covert tactical operatives that carry cards with strategy in their titles.  We need to focus on those that can develop true strategic plans.  At the same time, we need to reward those that are thinking strategically and get them to share their lessons learned with the rest of us.  Only through this collaboration and cooperation can we eventually transform the culture of a purely tactical and reactive organization into a forward thinking and forward acting wealth contributor!

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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 votes on comments or actions from others.  I remember Newt Gingrich and his comments when he had to exit through the back of AF-1, and I remember how comical and petty it sounded as the press magnified his comments and actions and put the focus squarely on him. 

I saw something similar today with the comments coming from the House of Representatives, but this time, the issue was one of extreme national emergency.  In this case, an apparently much needed bill to bailout our financial institutions failed to pass sending our markets into a freefall.  Shortly after the vote, some members of the minority party of the House got in front of the cameras and blamed the lack of votes to pass this bill on a speech just before the vote made by the Speaker of the House.  In her speech, the Speaker used this important time to just in front of the vote to assess and asign blame to the Administration and its policies for the current financial crisis, and in her comments, she obviously played some politics rather than focused on solving this very important problem facing our nation.

I’ve often said that “life is all about assessing blame”, because I honestly believe that many people feel more comfortable with pointing fingers and making political gain rather than solving problems and advancing any significant issue.  I saw that played out so perfectly today, and with all the good in this country, we saw the insanity of politics behind just about every microphone.

Late last year, I was visiting some partners in Turkey, and they expressed their deep frustrations and even anger with our Congress and our overall political climate today.  When I had a chance to respond to their comments, I stood up in front of their dinner crowd and said, “all of you and all of us have something in common…neither of us like our Congress.”  That got quite a chuckle.  At that time, the polls showed an approval rating about 23%, and after today, I can’t imagine it’s anywhere near that high.

Assessing blame allows each of us to divert attention from our real responsibilities of making decisions (regardless of political consequence) for the good of our country or our business or our family.  What we need now more than ever is a generation of leaders at all levels of our country that don’t spend their time determining political consequence and don’t use all their energy assessing blame.  In fact, what we need are less politicians and more people deeply concerned and solely concerned about the issues facing this country.

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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 a very dark house, with my wife out in North Carolina, my son out somewhere (he never says where), and my 14 year old at the football game.  By the time I got off the plane, I was text messaging my 14 year old and even exchanging calls with the father of her friend who was retrieving them from the game.  While I was in the cab from the airport to my home, the friend’s father gave in to the constant badgering of the girls and took them to Arby’s for a late night snack, which bought me just enough time to make it home and pick up a little bit before they arrived. 

My daughter, taking advantage of my wife being out of town, used text messaging to quickly arrange for her friend to spend the night at our house, and then to coerce me into also agreeing to taking them out to breakfast the following morning.  Since this was homecoming weekend, I gave in very quickly (even for me), but then using text messaging, coerced a friend who was visiting from out of town to come to breakfast with us so I wasn’t flying solo as a parent with these two teenage girls.

At breakfast, we talked homecoming and boys, and because I had a friend with me, we talked fishing and hunting as well.  Since he had been hunting just two weeks before and had killed a black bear in Alaska, he got lots of “oooo, that’s disgusting” from the girls, but they quickly diverted their attention back to other things of even greater importance – like could they lure the balloon man over to make them embarassing balloon hats. 

Since I still had the very stressful task of making sure my 14 year old’s needs were met in preparation for homecoming, I had already started the high volume stream of text messages going between my wife and I.  She was out in North Carolina participating in a “walk for the cure” for Ovarian Cancer, and although I was desperately short on confidence in helping my 14 year old, I was very proud of my wife for flying out for the walk.

After breakfast, we said good-bye to my friend who joined us for breakfast and dropped off my daughter’s friend at her home.  We then headed straight to the store for the apparently very normal homecoming day routine of buying earrings, necklaces, nail polish, and whatever else may have been needed to dress the part.  While my 14 year old was perusing the jewelry, I went to find black safety pins.  One of the most disturbing messages I got from my wife as she was leaving was that I would have to get some pins in order to pin up my 14 year old’s dress.  My immediate response was, “huh?”  I consider myself a fairly good father, but there are things that really light the “oh my gosh” fuse, and one of those would be, “you need to find safety pins to pin up your daughter’s dress”.

As I headed to the sewing section, I quickly found the safety pins, but they only had gold and silver.  My daughter said she needed black, but no joy…no black safety pins.  Using my “what do I do now” sense to sharpen my problem resolution skills, I quickly realized that we could paint the safety pins black using some paints found two aisles over in the craft section.  As you might imagine, I felt pretty good about myself as I went and found my 14 year old and told her my solution.  She quickly said, “ok”, and then asked, “which pair of earrings do you like?”  The quivers quickly returned, and my sense of accomplishment on the safety pins was immediately replaced by “what’s the right answer to that question?”  In the absence of having a real preference, I quickly said “you pick” and then said, “hurry up, we have to go.”

My joy on the problem resolution of the safety pins lasted for about 10 minutes till my wife got ahold of me and said (1) the paint won’t work and (2) the safety pins won’t show anyway.  Nothing like being totally deflated, though I must admit that I felt pretty good about the effort I made!

Later that afternoon, I dropped my daughter off at a friend’s house for final preparation (hair, makeup, and then getting dressed), and I headed off to a retirement dinner that I couldn’t miss.  Although I fully realize that she went to the homecoming with a bunch of friends, every parent worries when their child goes to homecoming…it’s just what parents do. 

During the middle of the dinner though, she sent me a picture of her at the homecoming, and I was stunned at how grown up she looked, but I was comforted in knowing that all was well based solely on the smile on her face.  When I got home later that evening, I anxiously waited for her to be dropped off, and when she walked in with the dress and the heels, with the earrings, the necklace and the nail polish, and with the hair all fixed up, I hugged her tight a couple of times, told her how beautiful she looked, and said good night.  I then went to my room and sat down and realized that my youngest child was now very much growing up and that these next few years would be full of anxiety beyond belief as she now enters those years where her heart will be uplifted at times and broken at others, where she’ll be influenced heavily by forces outside the family but hopefully fall back on the teachings and encouragement from the family, and where she’ll make good decisions and sometimes make mistakes but regardless feel the love and embrace of her family throughout.

I’m already back on the road again, but I was very blessed to have those 30 hours at home.  Even with the anxiety of being a Dad trying to help prepare his daughter for homecoming, I have to smile in knowing how well I performed under pressure and how special she looked as a result!  Of course, I also have to admit that I really had nothing to do with it, but thankfully, my wife has raised a daughter fully capable of taking care of herself and making herself look amazingly beautiful for these special events!  That makes my job so easy, but does nothing for the anxiety!

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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 that 20 minute connection from Denver to Colorado Springs.  This is the second time in 2 months that my flight into Denver has been diverted to my home town of Colorado Springs to get fuel while weather cells forced holding patterns to get into Denver.  The first time I was terminating in Denver and then driving to Colorado Springs – sure wish I could have deplaned in Colorado Springs.  This time I was connecting through Denver to Colorado Springs as my destination – sure wish I could have deplaned in Colorado Springs!  But no…the system isn’t set up to allow you to deplane for a quick refueling even if it is your destination.

So, I’ve been thinking.  Here are some new understandings of air travel language:

(1) Splash & Go – I’m a NASCAR fan, and a splash & go is a 3 second pit stop and then the car is back in the race; in travel language, when the pilot comes on and says we’re going to do a splash & go, that’s 45 minutes to an hour – there really is no such thing; if you get 15 minutes of fuel, you get at least 15 minutes more of paperwork; but the truck is never ready to fuel when you get there and the paperwork is never delivered right when complete – thus 45 minutes to an hour

(2) when the pilot says, “this will be real quick”, he really means 45 minutes to an hour; the first clue is when they shut down the engines; the second clue is when they say “go ahead and get up and move around the cabin”; the third clue is when he walks out of the cockpit area and meanders towards the back joking with the passengers; and the fourth and final clue is when the lead flight attendant pulls out her cell phone and calls home and says “we’ll be on the ground here at least 45 minutes to an hour”

(3) when the flight attendants say “go ahead and use the lavatories”, what she doesn’t say is “we have lavatories for 172 people for a 3 hour flight and if we’re taking 5 hours to get to our destination then the tanks will be full and the smell will be enormously bad”; I think I’d rather have her be honest and say, “if you can hold it till we finally get to Denver please do – take a whiff and you’ll know why”

(4) when the flight attendant says “I don’t know but I’ll ask the pilot” that really means “ain’t no way, but I don’t want to be the one to tell you”

Even with the detours and the frustrations, I’m hoping to get home this evening to be home for 36 hours before turning right back around and going right back to where I started from.  Yep…travel jollies.

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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 you ask for in some meaningful way; it’s amazing to me (but it really shouldn’t be) how managers (at levels all the way up an organization) collect significant data or detailed plans and then that data and those plans end up being collected into books and put on the shelf for long periods of time and then many times not used at all; everything levied down in an organization requires resources to respond to and thus cost to the business units; everyone should respect the costs and the distractions that needless requests cause

(2) governance (or an authority matrix) may be the most critical issue for establishing trust and creating an efficient operating environment; and yet most of the time, governance is ambiguous at best or irrational at worst, thus creating chaos and confusion and halting most business momentum before it can be established; trust and empowerment are so hard to achieve and allow in a business when they shouldn’t be; wouldn’t it be cool if we started with trust and then tightened up on governance based on the lessons we learn during our trusting process

(3) speaking of trust, it always amazes me how understanding team members usually are to needed change (reactive or proactive) if they believe that their leaders can be trusted and have the team’s best interests at heart; in any change process, some of your best folks will feel impacted (even if not)and those impacts can be quickly addressed, minimized, mitigated or completely absolved if trust has been established and dialogue can occur

(4) “practice what you preach” applies not only in lives but in business as well; if you want your team members to be conscious of costs and optimizing efficiences, then practice what you preach; if you want your team to focus on the bottom line, then practice what you preach; if you want your teams to aggressively grow (at levels above competitive norms), then resource them properly and remove barriers to success so that they can achieve above norms; if you want your team embrace your values, then live your values

(5) when you have “an elephant in the room” (an issue of any type or any magnitude that could bring all momentum to a screeching halt) then hunt down the elephant and kill it; very little creates more chaos and uncertainty in an organization than the elephant that everyone is watching or ignoring and no one is addressing

Hope you had a great week!

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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 over five weeks old went to the babies second hockey game, this time the first pre-season game of the year.  I have proof this time (though I still want to get you the picture on the glass from that first game):

Now several things stand out in this picture:

(1) this baby has it easy; I’m jealous of her being carried around in a pouch

(2) this baby knows that she needs to rest up before the game starts – no 5 week old can sleep during the excitement of a hockey game

(3) this Mom has an incredible sense of priorities – get her hooked early and then blame it on the baby wanting to go as the excuse for going to as many games possible in the best seats possible

(4) this Mom has the ultimate clue – two for the price of one at the hockey game!

I’m pretty dad gum excited about this, because Pops (that’s what she’ll call me) will also need some quality time with the granddaughter at the hockey game.  Having three generations of hockey fans already in the family is very cool!

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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 time my 14 year old was high fived by her favorite NHL player at any hockey game

(6) first time my 14 year old got signatures of professional athletes on her jersey

(7) first time my granddaughter tried an orange snow cone (she certainly didn’t like it)

(8) first time the granddaughter nastied the diaper at a hockey game (she probably did like that)

As my 14 year old said leaving the hockey arena, “this was my best night ever”!  I have to admit, there’s something special about being in the front row with your hockey heroes skating around right in front of you.  Even though it was an intra-squad scrimmage and even though they didn’t hit each other to hurt each other like a normal hockey game and even though the “white” team beat the “burgundy” team 8-0, it may have been the perfect venue for our 5 week old granddaughter’s first exposure to the elegance and brutality of professional hockey!

I must also admit that I get just a bit uneasy with the front row nursing.  I mean after all, you’ve got these world class athletes flying by on the ice and we don’t want them distracted by the baby getting her night time snack.  I must also admit that I was a bit uneasy with my 14 year old high fiving these young, good looking athletes, and then coming back to her seat and swearing never to wash that hand again.  And I must admit that doing the Y-M-C-A with a 5 week old is just a little bit risky as you try to make a “Y” and then an “M” (gave up after that) out of very short, pudgy arms.  And finally, I must admit that there’s something very appropriate about a baby doing a poopey in the midst of the hockey thuggery!

Overall, what an incredible night!  The only bummer this night was when I got home and tried to copy the picture of my granddaughter and oldest daughter with Budaj in the background and I corrupted the file and the picture wouldn’t open.  I’ll have to settle for the picture below till I get a copy of another picture that was taken tonight!  Check back in a couple days to see the beautiful Mom and her daughter as proof that they were indeed at the game!

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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 their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint.”  This verse is found in the Old Testament, Isaiah 40:31.  As I think about the struggles that have come at times and as I think about the challenges I face today in my personal and my professional life, this verse gives me such incredible comfort.  When I’m feeling beat down or when I feel like the burdens of this world are weighing on me to the point that I may be breaking, I find my strength in the Lord and He renews my strength.  It’s hard to explain, but sometimes in those moments of deepest despair, when my only hope is in the Lord, I really do feel like I can soar on wings like eagles.  In those moments when I’m on my knees and my only hope is in the Lord, my strength is renewed.  It’s something special and a promise that I count on frequently in my life.

(2) I turned 48 today, and I was reminded at church how special today really is.  But not for me.  We had two other special birthdays today, one for a young man turning 86 years old and the other for a somewhat younger lady that’s turning 2!  As I hit this mid point of my life, I can only hope that the wisdom I have at 86 comes somewhere close to that young man who celebrated his birthday today.  And I can also only hope that I have the faith of that child who turned 2 today.  In Matthew 18:3, Jesus said, “unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”  As I listened to the wisdom from the 86 year old today, I could sense that he has indeed become like a child, trusting in things unseen and putting his faith in the man who died on that cross almost 2,000 years ago.

(3) I often times wonder what is going on in the mind of a little baby.  Over the last few weeks, I’ve been a proud granddad, and I’ve shown you pictures of my granddaughter Audrey Sue.  But lately, at just 4 weeks old, she’s been smiling a lot, and even once in a while, giving us that 4 week old cheer:

I fully realize that babies eat, poop, and sleep most of the time, but this 4 week old is experiencing serenity in her life right now that may go just a little bit beyond those three vitals of early baby life.  Proverbs 15:30 says, “a cheerful look brings joy to the heart.”  My little granddaughter has brought great joy to my heart!

I’ve been blessed with three straight weeks at home and that hasn’t happened for almost three years.  In these three weeks, I’ve been able to focus on my spiritual and my emotional reservoirs, and I must admit that each of them is overflowing right now.  It’s been awesome to spend so much time with those that I love, and then also get to know to a much better level those that I now work with on a day to day basis.  Although I hit the road again this week, I’m very thankful for the blessings I received in these three weeks at home.

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