Did Anyone Get the Plate Number of that Bus?

Are Those Tire Tracks on My Back?

There are moments. You can feel them coming. You're watching the bus speeding toward you, but there's nothing you can do. Then, you feel a hand on your shoulder - someone is going to pull you back - but, no, they just shove you to the ground, so as to not damage the bus.

Friday afternoon, I'm in a meeting. We're working out details of a great technical plan that will meet all the goals we've been given. The big problem is the politics. It won't play well at the higher levels. But it's a great technical solution. We also develop some other solutions that aren't as good technically, but the politics are better.

I get back to my desk to find that there's going to be a big meeting this morning with lots of important people to dsicuss all sorts of details. I walk over and talk to one of the guys pulling it together and tell me what we've been talking about (the great technical solution). He asked if we had any PowerPoint sldies, and I told him we didn't. It was all discussion.

This morning, I have an email waiting for me asking if we're going to have slides on that topic. Different guy than who I talked to, but they work together. I replied, no, we don't have anything. However, knowing how the Agency works, I start pulling something together. About 10 minutes later, I get the sign-off from my supervisor and send a single slide to my boss(es) and the guy who asked if we had anything.

Off we go into the meeting. Started at nine, scheduled to end at noon. A little before one, we get to the topic. It had come up briefly a couple times, but they always said "we'll talk about that later." They bring the slide up on the screen, and someone asks if my chief engineer would like to brief it. He, in turn, asks my boss if he'd like to brief it. My boss suggests that the person who made the slide should brief it.

SON OF A -

So I leave my relative safety of the crowd and go sit at the table. (I have to be at a microphone.) For the record, I saw this coming about the time they opened the file. Not soon enough to run, but like the metaphor I started with, I saw the bus coming.

Let me back up a second, here's who was at the meeting:

My supervisor (who approved the slide)My boss (saw the slide for 30 seconds at the start of the meeting)
My program chief engineer (my boss' boss)My deputy program director (chief engineer's boss)
The Agency System Engineer (my boss' boss through a different chain of command)
The Agency Chief Engineer (chief engineer's boss through a different chain of command)
The Agency Deputy for Engineering (the highest engineer, he reports directly to a 3-star general)
The Agency Deputy for Program Management (a one-star general, who was out of the room at the time)
The Agency Deputy for Test (a two-star general)
At least 2 other Senior Executives (civilian equavalent of one-star general)
A full colonel, a lieutenant colonel, and several senior managers

That's about as senior a meeting as we have, at least that I can get in the door of. And, with 30 seconds notice, I'm about to brief them a slide I created in 10 mnutes.

I rocked.

The technical solution I like was going to be a hard sell, and it was. But the Deputy for Engineering said that his direction was to bring options, and this was an option. Not one he expected to be possible, but a technical option that meets the requirements for the test.

After the meeting (finally) ended, my supervisor told me "not bad for a 10-minute slide," my boss came over and shook my hand and told me I did a good job, and the meeting organizer guy (the one from Friday) told me I did a very good job. Like I said,

I rocked.