Holy Crap where have _I_ been??

Wow, four whole months since I've posted.  So what have I been up to?

Well, as part of my new position at work I've been around the world and back, but only via telephone.  (If I would have had to fly everywhere it would have taken 5 months to get done what I did in 2).  For one of our largest global clients I've been taking a look at how we can better perform operationally.

It's been one of the most enlightening experiences of my life.  I've learned so much and probably have the most unique view of where our strengths and vulnerabilities lie across the portfolio of work.

I've conducted over 50+ personal interviews with end clients, client servicing folks and my fellow peeps in operations around the globe.  It's meant calls at 7:00am and 8:00pm in order to accommodate the global time clock and it's meant asking some tough questions about when we've had some major screw-ups.  But it's also meant celebrating our successes and learning from what we do best.

The hard work begins NOW though as we develop a strategic plan for this global work that'll cover the next three to five years.  It also means a lot of high-level presentations of the findings and workshopping of potential solutions.

I'm pretty clear on what the final solutions need to have as key attributes, but it's going to be interesting to see how we can work around some of the totem poles/third rails that exist.  It's critical for us to bring a new view to how we engage with clients and how we manage the work they entrust to us.

I'm super excited about this and will probably be pretty cranky right through to October when we present the final report to the client.

Other than work, I've just really been enjoying watching our little man grow into a little boy.  At 2 years, 8 months he's got some real attitude and moxy.  He knows how to play you to get what he wants and he's the ultimate up-seller.  If you tell him he gets to choose 2 books, he immediately says "three", if you tell him he can have a small package of raisins, he wants two.  Yeah, this kids is gonna be killer in negotiations.  His major attitude though gets him into trouble and he's as pig-headed as his Daddy at times and that's not necessarily a good thing.

I've rarely gotten to any Cubs games this year.  Not too broken up about that, figured that this was going to be a throw-away transition year for the new management and clearly knew that since they were saddled with paying massive salaries for a bunch of turds, we'd be lucky to end up at .500.

So that's what I've been doing with my summer, how about you? 

I need to re-generate my postings to this blog.  I really do enjoy spouting some nonsense most of the time and with how busy we've been, I've just neglected it like an old baseball glove.  Speaking of which, we just bought Aidan his first glove (it's so tiny) but that also forced me to dig out my old first-baseman's glove.  I'm surprised it still fits on my fat hand, but glad it does.  I'm working it back in as the leather sort of seized up over the years of non-usage.  I can't wait until he gets a little older as playing catch now is sort of rough but he's getting the hang of it.

Okay, STFU time, I've written enough.  Gotta spread this cr*p out so that it looks like I post a lot (har har)