Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Home again -- for now

I'm always happy to return home safely from travel and I'm comfortably ensconced in my home office. My trip to Austin went smoothly from a travel and logistics perspective, and I had three days of very successful meetings and interactions with the teams there. As things progressed, I was quite busy for all waking hours (about 19hrs/day)and didn't have a chance to explore or find out if there is Yoga in Texas.

While I miss my routine when I travel, I am glad to have the opportunity to do new things, meet new people, and learn something different. There is something reassuring about a routine, yet the minor disruption that occurs with travel gently nudges us to see things a little differently and to remind ourselves of a/the bigger picture.

On the routine front at home, I was happy to have a very good piano lesson. The work I've been doing on the Ravel -- paying very close attention to the voicing -- is paying off. My teacher would never pull a punch and is a very critical listener. When he's happy with the sound, it's a genuine accomplishment.

What was interesting to me is that I'm intently focused on the mechanical delivery of the music. My teacher asked me if it felt right and sounded right to me. I explained that my playing is very deliberate with a lot of attention to the production of the sound. He suggested I record myself so that I can get the listener's perspective. Sounds like a good idea.

I did finish reading the book on development and growth while on the plane. One very interesting point was made, which I can't quote because the book is not at hand. It basically stated that the goal of an organization is to maximize the growth of the entire organization so that the full potential of each person is realized. Certainly this is much more contemporary than the relatively primitive concepts of measuring worker productivity with a stopwatch and clipboard. The book was well-written structurally with good chapter intros, tables of key points to be made, narrative, and summary. There are some good templates for guidance in the appendices.

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