Saying no to the executive bunch

I've been trying to get one of our big executives to go on a trip to experience real 3D production.  Everytime he cancels.  I know intellectually that the man is busy, I know that he means well and that clearly he intends to go when he says he's going to go.  But 0 for 3 is a wipeout.  If I've booked an appointment with an executive and he cancels on me 3 times he's going to need to be in touch with me if he wants to meet with me.

I know I'm a middle manager.  I can sit and sing the middle manager blues all day long.  Open up a bottle of johnny walker black, turn the lights out, kick my feet up on the window sill and have some depressing blues song on in the background and just get low.  This is called getting low.  A friend of mine in boarding school used to call this 'gettin' low'.  From Texas, great accent, tons of money a great guy.  Very funny / dry sense of humor.  He would say 'hey, hey, had a bad day? let's get low'.  Memory lane wouldn't you know, it creeps up on you.

So I'm taking a stand.  The entire executive team committed to each other that they will be solely committed to the 3D business this year.  I hear subtle complaining from above (ie the executives) the revenues are down this year, what's going on?  He's not running this well.  It's not managed well. etc, etc, etc.  Yet, these guys have no skin in the game.  They talk, meet and have verbal commitments that mean very little to me or to the business at large.  Most of them have little or no impact on the business.

Okay.  Imagine that, I've got a little chip on my shoulder right now.  These guys should be invested in the business.  Man running a business inside another business has it's lower points, sometimes it drives me nuts.  Having to work double time on everything to get something done.  When in the core business, ohh the core business.  How things just work, everyone is invested in the process and everything just runs soooooo smoothly.  For us everything is a change, a hiccup, a reprogram, a complaint on this or that, ughh.

So when the executive cancels on me because he's too busy, it doesn't mean he's not invested. It's just a question of goals and priorities.  (looking forward to writing about in a future post).  Ultimately, the way he cancels, either through no notification at all or a very disinterested response is not inspiring.  Of course, my goal is to have him see all this cool stuff and be inspired to do something with the business.  As a middle manager, it just won't cut it if you don't have an executive sponser who is moving the car while you spin the wheels.  Because middle managers spin wheels, they don't move cars.

Middle child....I mean Middle Manager

How might we be best suited to deal with middle child, I mean middle manager syndrome? You've reached a level of excellence, you've got a paycheck that's paying the bills, you've got people reporting to you, you get meetings with big executives, so what's the problem exactly?

Defining a problem is sometimes like saying there is no problem.  If we could perfectly describe the problem then just maybe the problem only exists in our mind.  Or when we describe the situation it doesn't have that umphh that it feels like in the gut.  How can I evolve so that I get out of this rut?

The point to make here is that the problem is not always so identifiable.  If I am struggling with something that's by definition because I am not clear about it.  If I were to say or write what I think and refine it till it's clear on some level it would actually cease being a problem.  It would just be what is.  So how do I get my schmutz (ie the bad stuff) out of my head into some sort of format that will allow me to create progress.  I hate being stuck in a rut.

I don't have any fancy numberings, like here's the 7 abc's to 123's or here are the 4 rules of xyz.  I'm basically just here writing, figuring this out, watch how it unfolds.  Stay with me and you'll see this too.

Now, we need to portray an answer.  We need to communicate a prospective solution to an audience of readers.  How might be the best way to do that?  What if this doesn't work?  What if I write something that is not correct?  I might mislead someone into believing in an answer that is not true.  I might feel rushed that I have to write quickly or else I'll never get this done.  Basically what I'm saying is why should I write this, I don't have all the answers.