Totally awesome

As of midnight last night I'm back from St Charles.....wow, what a fantastic week!  Not only was the course a great introduction into the methods and tools of change management but the people were fabulous.  Folks from all over the world (Australia, Germany, Sweden, Canada and India) and across several US states.  I really did luck out on this course as it wasn't on my development program for this year.....although should have been - all new hires to the practice should do this course the second they hit the ground.  It started at a very civilized time in the morning (8:30am) and finished around 6 with no homework.  Lots of exercises where we presented as teams too. A big part of the whole experience is the networking/socializing side.  On the Wednesday they held a "Just Desserts" event, which was just desserts, beer and wine.  It was great fun with lots of laughs.  Afterwards a group of us headed across to the Clubhouse, which is a bar on the campus - place just hums as it brings together anyone on the campus attending a course (other companies as well).  You can imagine that over the years there are a lot of stories to tell.  I am amazed at the number of folks I've met who've spent their entire careers at the firm.  It's a little like joining the Army, there is a way we do business, strong loyalties, underlying competitive but (remarkable) willingness and ability to collaborate (and I mean it, seriously, there were a couple of team building exercises and, whereas in my previous organizations the competition would have been ruthless....people shared their answers with one another as they played).  The grounds were gorgeous and there was this lovely running track by the river that I took advantage of (as did dozens of others walking, biking and jogging) and the gym was fantastic (and full of crazy people at 6:30am in the morning!).
St Charles/Chicago in June is clearly an odd place to be, temperatures in the 80s/90s (30s for the kiwis) and really really humid.  Driving to the airport (in a stretch limo I might add - they use town cars (lincolns) and limos to ferry us too and from the airport, sounds glamours.....but isn't really. It is better than the bus and really quite practical given how many people you can get in a limo and cars are faster than buses at the best of times) there was a massive thunder and lightening storm, trees down etc etc.  Of course in a classic moment I met someone in the car working at Cisco - we all know the same folks and she knew the project I was working on.....nice!  Oh and even better, two of the instructors on the course are from the San Francisco Office and the Partner that came to talk to the group was the one that interviewed me and must have a mind like a steel trap....she remembered by name!
Start my new project on Monday, looking forward to it.
Today, long long run and chores.....nice to have gone, nice to be home!