I'm now meeting with people who are interested in my job - to be CEO of the Corp. And over this past weekend, we had a mini-retreat that encouraged all of us to look back and evaluate what we had accomplished as a Corp Upper Management. And I'm proud of what's been done, but I increasingly worry about our ability to transfer it to the next group, even with the best of intentions.
Take this blog, for instance. I think it's a valuable look into what it's like to be a Corp officer. I started it because I wanted to leverage one of my strengths--writing. The next CEO might not enjoy writing, or writing a blog that encourages public introspection. That's fine. But what about DPAC? How do you transfer all the work that went into DPAC Director applications, effort that produced real, creative, and useful knowledge capital for the Corp? Sure, it's on the website, but you have to take the time to look at it, to recreate the context, to value it, and to revive it. I'm worried about this. I'm worried that it won't happen, despite the efforts I'm going to make in transition season--but sustainability isn't in my hands, and I think I've missed the boat in that sense up until now in my job.
It's not about how much I want it to be sustainable. It's about how good each initiative is. It's about its quality, how impactful it is, how much people like it. Sustainability is achieved at the mercy of the next generation of Corp leaders, who will be tempted to look only to the future in their ambitious agendas. And who am I to demand that they look back? In a few months, just a shift manager at Vittles. So I hope, I really hope, that the people who take the leadership jobs are keen to continue on what we've started.
And by that I mean, I hope what we've done deserves their attention and buy-in. And by that I mean your attention and buy-in. Here's hoping The Back Hallway is still around come November 2010!
