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It’s true…..this space has been as dead as a bag of hammers for a couple of months. I’ve switched companies and jobs, and that has made for a very exciting and immersive few weeks.

I’ve switched jobs before.  I worked for my previous employer for 14 years and had a number of positions, each a challenge and none of them easy.  Learning the ropes, discovering who were the go-to people on the team, what were the local processes for getting things done and re-jiggering my goals and deliverables for the new gig always took a bit of time, but the corporate culture was basically the same (there were actually some differences between business groups, but I learned early on that was the norm for my company).  I didn’t have to learn a new repository of information, a new information discovery tree or deal with a new way of thinking about what we did, as a company.

THAT has changed.

Boy Howdy….

First, let me say that I am much more energized and excited about what I do than I have been in years. It’s amazing what shaking loose the cobwebs and jumping into an entirely new situation can do to snap you awake!

Being WIDE AWAKE has as much to do with jumping into the new job as it has to do with discovering some things about myself.

I find that I really do like to think strategically and apply all the many aspects of things I’ve learned in business, in music and through education to the problems at hand and try to find a way through the fog. I also recognize the need and challenge of evolving the strategy into something that can actually be implemented and takes into primary account the people on whom it has the greatest impact…in my case, the community of customers my company touches every day. Listening first; recognizing the voices of individuals and knowing that recognition of their individuality and passion is central to the building of trust. Responding as a person and representative of my company, again recognizing the interchange as a conversation and not a transaction, is central to my belief of community.

Next, I’ve rediscovered my hunger to be creative, and not only in the new avenues provided for me by my new employer. I realized last year that I was hungry to start writing music and playing again, so I asked Santa for a Korg M3 workstation for Christmas and found once again that Santa ROCKS! I’m learning the particular intricacies of this piece of technology, which is part of the fun, and having a good time uncovering the music in my head again.

All of this is to say that I’m happy to be back….