Picture your favorite restaurant…now imagine that you can order anything off the menu to eat.  For me (Leo), it’s probably starting with some bread dipped in an olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette concoction to mix it in while I wait for them to bring out a lobster bisque.  Just as I finish off the lobster bisque they have brought out the main meal.  Before me they sit a  delicious 12 ounce,  filet minion that has been dry aged 21 to 45 days and then broiled at 1500 degrees to perfection (for me medium-rare).   My sides for the meal are a loaded baked potato and some fresh steamed asparagus.  Drink of choice for the evening is some Pellegrino mineral water with a lime to wash it all down.  And then comes my absolute favorite part of the meal, dessert.  I’m going with a fresh baked apple pie with a fresh scoop of ice cream on top to cool it off. And while it all settles I enjoy the company with me and a hot cup of coffee.

As good as the meal was there soon sets in that feeling of being extremely full and it begins to hurt.  Today’s meeting began at 8 a.m. and concluded at 9.30 p.m.  We spent the day finishing up the full development of the 2009 goals for our respective areas.  Each of us put our goals out for all to evaluate and make sure they met the S.M.A.R.T. criteria and aligned with the CMN meta-goals established yesterday.  We then spent some time developing a 90 day first quarter action plan to achieve those goals.  By the time we finished, everyone had that feeling like we really enjoyed what we just ate but boy are we full.

We did take a couple breaks and played some Guitar Hero.  We learned that Joel has some serious Guitar Hero skills.  We were also able to take a little time to look at our strengths (as determined from Strength’s Finder:2.0).  For those who have utilized this tool understand the value of it. If you haven’t taken this assessment we strongly encourage you to consider it for yourself and your team.  The CMN Leadership Teams strengths are:

Steve Pike: Futuristic, Ideation, Strategic, Input, Self Assurance
Dave Auterson: Learner, Futuristic, Achiever, Woo, Activator
Leo Crosby: Maximizer, Strategic, Relator, Arranger, Competition
Joel Hunter: Command, Input, Self Assurance, Arranger, Activator
Dave McNaughton: Achiever, Ideation, Activator, Strategic, Self Assurance

The final issue of the day was to determine our staffing needs for administrative support and determine a leadership communication strategy to implement.  We are following a variation of a communication strategy that is outlined in Patrick Lencioni’s book Death by Meeting.

Tomorrow we finish up as we discuss the culture and values that we want exhibited in our daily interactions as an office and with