Journal : OpenRoadWorks

Whatever I have to say has left me at this moment as I silently digest lunch at my desk and face the prospect of another few hours at work before I'm done. After a series of thinking conversations that have stretched me beyond my capacity to function properly at work, I am coasting in a moment of lackadaisical review of my email. Pretty soon, I will get up from my desk for a tasty shot of espresso that will certainly awaken my inner animus and give it flight for thought. From food coma back to productivity - pretty soon I'll get that second wind.

The feeling is altogether fulfilling when a golf ball ascends into the air on a majestic, backspinning arc that launches like a rocket and hangs lazily in the clouds before landing softly out in the distance. Every so often, golfers know this feeling of triumph - flush is how the shot is described, with all the other supporting adjectives that sum up its lovely result. I would have traded my first round of golf for a few of these flush shots, as I found my game utterly rusted over and decaying after a year of almost non-play. Usually, I keep my game in relative maintenance, making the links at least 4-5 times during the year (my former life as a consultant severely limited my playing capacity to that amount). But a year abroad in Switzerland killed my momentum and kept me far, far away from anything related to the rough and bunkers of a golf course. Alas, now I have a "normal" job and some time (relatively) on my hands - but I have not put my skills to the test. Until th...

As a business manager that has spent quite a bit of time working in consulting and strategy, it is only appropriate that I wax poetically on Microsoft Powerpoint. It seems that every day of my working life, I find myself launching this inocuous program with the orange icon in the corner containing the cut-out circle graph and bullet point lines (most people don't even take a hard look at the icon!). I cannot call myself a Microsoft evangelist, but I can call myself a Powerpoint junkie. Moving lines across the screen. Opening new text boxes. Forming graphics. Framing bullet points. Underline. Bold. Italic. Cut. Re-arrange slides. Storyboard. Insert images. Draw lines. Cut again. Storyboard? Quotes. Bold some more. Cut some more. Storyboard. Storyboard. Storyboard... Ah, well - it is a trusted friend, for sure. I just needed a moment's break from building slides in order to gain my sanity again. Now, back to work - back to powerpoint!

I am in between meetings at work. I have a few minutes to spare. I have had a burning desire to release some words from my proverbial pen, but I have either been too tired, lazy, or busy to make time to do so. Funny how a year ago, I would have somehow found the time to make my words appear - thanks to my obligation to the IMD MBA diary. But now, I am only obligated to myself, my family & friends, and my work - and the story is very different. So, I made time today to put fingers to keys and make some words happen. Even if it is only five minutes of such blathering. I hope that the future finds many more posts with many more interesting things to say than just this post about aligned obligations. It's a start, I suppose (but did I not say the same thing about a month ago???); alas, I have at least made a point in sneaking in some writing.