darrelhuish.net

In early August I attended a CQIN conference in San Antonio, and heard some outstanding speakers from Toyota, Goodwill Industries, Datatel, and Valero Oil. One of the things that stuck with me was about creating organizational change. Some one mentioned that organizations do evolve and change, but that it is almost always a slower process than what the leader has in mind. It’s like a VW that can drive down the road pretty smoothly at 45, but if you take it up to 60, well you get some unwelcome feedback. It made me think about ITS. I think there is a hypothetical rate of progress that would be very smooth… but we would get passed on the highway. So, we need to be willing to move out of the comfort zone, and we have been doing that. Sometimes we can feel the vibrations. There is understandable worrying out loud about the move to Emerald Point, or the past disappointment of not moving to the content management system, and the very valid feedback that with the work demands this summer there wasn’t enough communication or empathy. There is also a very real spirit that ITS today is not what it was in 2003, and for the better.

I think it is a matter of looking for a middle ground. All things considered, we aren’t going to go 100 mph, so we have to be reasonable. On the other hand, unless we embrace some significant change we don’t reach our goals.

A little over three weeks ago I was surprised with the sudden death of my dad. I hope I have already reached everyone in expressing my gratitude for the sympathy and support that was showed to me and my family. It was a true comfort and I will always remember the reassurance of knowing that the Maricopa community was being supportive and keeping a thought for me. My “lesson learned” is to never take for granted the benefit of being part of a community and being surrounded by good-hearted people and also to never underestimate the usefulness of expressing sympathy in whatever form comes naturally. I guess that’s two lessons learned.
Not the kind of information that reaches the newspapers, but we have something good going on here.