You may have noticed (as if anyone is actually reading this) that I've not posted in some time. No, I don't even have a bad excuse, although if you give me a bit I'll come up with something really good, involving pirates and ninjas.
So where have I been? To quote one of my favorite fictional characters, Martin Blank: "I guess you could say I went west. You know, the way of Horatio Alger, Davey Crockett, the Donner Party...".
If you must know, I've been working. I had an opportunity to join a small start-up style team working within a publicly traded company, which I jumped at the chance because it gave me a chance to further test out theories of how to successfully (and unsuccessfully) operate an innovation team within an established organization.
And it has been an excellent learning experience, but as all good things must end it was time for me to move on to a different challenge. I'll be writing more on this experience in future postings but the one thing I did want to highlight first was the deep sense of camaraderie that developed within our team and the business unit we were tasked with supporting by any means necessary.
I saw firsthand what having courage and a selfless lack of ego can do for bringing together a team that had deep experience aligning it's work with known business value.
I also saw firsthand how an attitude of "By any means necessary" coupled with a strong commitment to the team could bootstrap a business unit from nothing to a strategic centerpiece of the growth strategy of a publicly traded company.
The successes of this team I have had the privilege to work with cannot be found in any book or training class - it was the people that made the difference. They certainly made a difference to me. In future postings I'll discuss in greater detail what I saw from these people and how it made the team work, but for now I'm simply going to say that I will miss working with them and thank them for an excellent opportunity to learn and be successful.
Vaya con dios, Saskia and Dwayne. I truly enjoyed working with you.
