Leadership and big changes

One of my last jobs at Sun was to lead the effort to get Sun people behind the change to a new desk top environment. We used a model for helping build commitment to change that really works. It makes for true leadership.

A company called Rackspace in Texas wanted to move their headquarters into a really bad part of town.  The employees were so appalled by the idea that the person hired to do focus groups with the employees quit after practically being assaulted at the first focus group. This video of a short interview with the Rackspace president is a great example of how to lead people through a controversial change. It shows all of the the key requirements for leading through change.

  • The people at the top have to really be committed to the change
  • There has to be a really good business reason for the change and it has to be communicated believably,
  • You have to listen to individuals about why they might not like the change. Listening means taking their concerns seriously. People need to be heard. I love the way this is described in the video as house to house fighting.
  • Everyone has to have a shared vision of the end state and how great it can be.
  • And then of course you have to have a plan to get there.

This link will take you to the video. Watch it. It is inspiring!

I found this story on the Scobleizer website. I love the way Robert Scoble tells the story.

"Wait a freaking second. How did one guy who had an absolutely crazy
idea that 1,400 people hated, including his partners, turn this all
around in about a year?

Leadership."

Podcasts

I’ve been doing quite a bit of driving lately. In addition to driving to Southern California and to the Bay Area in the past month I often drive to visit my Dad who recently moved to Reno. It takes about 25 minutes to get to his new apartment. Along the way I have really been enjoying listening to podcasts. I subscribe to them on iTunes and then download them to my iPod. I have an iPod FM adapter for the car so I can listen to the podcasts while I drive.  Here is a list of some of my favorites.

Bill Buckley

When Betty Friedan, the author of The Feminine Mystique died I meant to write a blog about how The Feminine Mystique impacted my life. I can remember  exactly how I felt when I read it, how the truth of it hit me, and how it shaped my future. I never got around to writing that blog. So when Bill Buckley died on February 27th I was determined to not just think about what I would write but this time to actually write it. I really want to try to write about why Buckley was one of my heroes, about how much I admired the way he lived his life, and last but not least about how much I enjoy his books, especially his sailing books.

Buckley’s four sailing books are among my favorite books of all time. I
picked one up last night and each place I turned to I
found something thought provoking and interesting. He used a lot of big
words. When I read his books I usually kept a dictionary by me. I loved
the fact that he challenged me. He made me think. I always felt that
when I read Buckley I knew him, I was just a little bit his friend.

A lot has been written and spoken about him since his death. I read the Newsweek cover story and the Wall Street Journal editorial. I watched the Sunday Morning news shows’ tributes to Buckley. I just watched the Charlie Rose show about Buckley. They all reinforce what I already knew. I admired the man and I aspire in many ways to be like him. To be intelligent and articulate, to be known by my friends as someone who treats everyone equally, to believe in the human spirit, To strive to do many things well,  (Buckley wrote 50 books, he wrote newspaper columns, made speeches, hosted a television show, sailed, skied, played the harpsichord and spent time with his friends.) to never be satisfied.,to study, to think, to write and most of all to be the best possible friend to my family members and friends.  At the end of the Charlie Rose show about Buckley, Rose spoke about how much Buckley’s friendship meant to him. Charlie Rose was choking up. I have never seen that happen before. Rose spoke about how important it is to spend time with your friends today because "there is no tomorrow."

Snowshoeing to Chickadee Ridge

Today about 10 of us from the Sierra Canyon hiking and snow shoeing group went snow shoeing to Chickadee Ridge. The views of Lake Tahoe from the top are stunning. Unfortunately when I took my camera out to start taking pictures I discovered I had left the memory card at home. Damn! So that means no pictures unless you want to look at the pictures I took when we hiked there last September. I had to head back to the car soon after we got to the ridge top because I was scheduled to go to a doctor appointment with my Dad. But the rest of the group went on along the ridge. It is basically the route of the Tahoe Rim Trail but there is so much snow that of course there is no trail.

update 3/12
One of the guys who I was snowshoeing with sent me some great pictures he took on this trip. You can see us feeding the chickadees. Thanks Paul!
Mtrose8Mtrose4
Mtrose1

Mtrose10Mtrose6
Mtrose9

Earthquake and hikes

A sharp jolt woke me up early Saturday morning. I realized immediately that it was an earthquake – a pretty substantial one. If the epicenter was more than a few miles away then I thought it must have been quite a big quake judging by how strong it felt and sounded to me. It took me a while to go back to sleep but eventually I did. First thing Saturday morning I checked out the quake on the USGS website. They described it as being 2 miles ENE from Verdi-Mogul. That is exactly where I live! It was only a magnitude 3.0 but no wonder it felt big. I was almost on top of the epicenter. Today I put the exact coordinates into my GPS and found out that it was actually centered about one mile to the east of me. I think I’ll use the GPS to go check out the exact spot.

I received the GPS for Christmas and I’ve been having fun learning how to use it. Yesterday I hiked 3 miles up the mountain we live on. The top of Peavine Mountain is a long way off but going 3 miles up gave me a good work out and some great views. Where I turned around I saw a herd of about 40 deer.

Hiking382007_004
Hiking382007_008 Hiking382007_011

The hike yesterday was so nice that today I decided to do another out my front door hike. I also decided to try to find my first geocache using my GPS.  This time I headed down hill. A new road is being built that will connect us much more directly with interstate 80. It is supposed to open this spring. I walked down the new road, across old highway 40 and down to the Truckee River. The geocache was fairly easy to find. It was kind of exciting to find my first one!

Hiking_392008_020
Hiking_392008_019 Hiking_392008_023_2

I decided to try to find another geocache nearby. It was back up the hill from the river. The location was supposed to be in this old car but I couldn’t find the cache. As I was making my way back home I startled some more deer. It was fun hike and a beautiful day. I am inspired to find some more geocaches!

Hiking_392008_032
Hiking_392008_037 
Hiking_392008_017_2

Now that I’m home I’ve checked out the clue to the cache. Maybe later this week  I’ll try again to find it.