Musings at Altitude

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!