#713 connections

It is ironic that I was in Buffalo doing a leadership session at a friend's campus on the topic of "connections".   That theme was appropriate to characterize my trip to New York, when my flight was delayed out of Chicago due to a snowstorm in Denver.  The plane had to be de-iced there, thus was late into O'Hare, so I was late in leaving.   Snow a thousand miles away impacted my connection.

On the return trip, a faulty bathroom fan caused smoke in a building 50 miles from O'Hare, and in turn caused a thousand flights to be cancelled.  The building was the air traffic radar system for O'Hare and Midway, so both airports were closed for a few hours in the middle of the day.  While I was flying over Michigan en route to Chicago.  

My plane was diverted to Grand Rapids, where after a few hours of flying in a holding pattern, then sitting on the tarmac, we were allowed to deplane -- only to be told our fight was cancelled and we were stuck there for the next 30 hours!  Instead, I made a connection with a delightful stranger and we drove four hours to Chicago, where my brother rescued me and loaned me his extra car to drive the additional three hours to Iowa.  Despite the drive, and the impending six hours to return the car next week, I was grateful to have made it home that evening.

I didn't think that the weather in Denver would impact my flight into New York or that smoke in Elgin would derail my plans to come home, but it did.  The world is interrelated -- some consequences are unintentional like airline delays, but other actions can have intentional effects that can enhance connections.  Become conscious of the web you are a part of and how it can subsequently help strengthen your organization.

-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com

@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com