Day 53 – Warn Notice – Thankfulness

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As the last 53 days have past there has been a lot of complaining on my part in this blog.  This is a stressful transition to get through.  And I hope this hasn’t completely over shadowed the fantastic time that I have had at Boeing.

It will have been 22 years on May 5.  What I have enjoyed, by far the most, is the great people that I have met along the way.  I have learned from most of them, especially in my later years, now that I’m not so full of myself.  Some have made significant major differences in my life.  My first job was on the 747-400 program in Everett Avionics.  Just out of college I was hired as an Apollo systems manager.

From their I started doing project management and leading teams.  Somewhere in here there was a long the SPEEA strike and the associated picketing.  I started working computing support plans for derivative airplanes.  This was fast enjoyable work and where I became very interested in how intention and purpose made such a large difference in the outcome of projects and large initiatives.  At  this time my boss was a gal named Neta Wellever.  She was the best boss I ever had, and she had a gift of being a great mentor. 

With the abrupt stopping of the 747-600 program many people had to scramble to find new positions.  I landed in IS CADCAM on a special project to look into how to do lean in the office environment.  From here I moved into supporting the IS Lean Office as it started up.   This went on for a couple years but never really gained executive managements support.

Changing gears from lean I move into process management in CNO and spent 5 years helping to build the CNO ITIL architecture with Chris Kent as the Vice President at that time.  This was an especially fun time in my career.  the outcome of this continues today as the foundation of the ESMS and some other related projects that are near the implementation  state.

Peering forward beyond the completion of the infrastructure, we perceived the need for building the capacity to improve processes and this started me on another Lean journey.  With a ground swell of support,  a great community of Lean practitioners grew and then expanded to include other groups within IT.  Eventually, the CNO office expanded to include all of IT, but unfortunately it expanded without the proper sponsorship in its new roll.

This caused another change of jobs into the Leadership Development organization and what I think of as an unfortunate falling between the cracks at a time when cuts were taking place.  If it wasn’t me, then it would have been someone else and I would want to wish that on someone else.

All through this journey there has been great people that made coming to work easy and fun.  I almost always enjoyed my job and couldn’t wait for the next exciting project to work on.

Boeing has provided with a great many opportunities.  Opportunities to work on world class projects, do IT work within one of the largest organizations in the world.  In addition to the people, Boeing has some of the best support resources. I’m always amazed at finding yet another resource that I didn’t know we had access to.  I have been blessed  to travel, not so much that I tired of it; but enough to see other parts of the country.  Even went to Japan to study with the Lean Sensei.  A trip that I will always treasure.

The Boeing medical plan has paid for bringing my kids into this world and has cared for my family all these years.  Dealing with the insurance company has been a pain, but I’m sure it is that way where ever you go.

This time of having the warn notice and being forced into something that I don’t want to do has been tough to get through.  I hope that I can still find a job within Boeing in the next week though my hope is fading.  I can tell this next week is not going to be easy to get through.   If I have to leave, I will leave with regrets and also with gratefulness for being able to work for Boeing for so long.

So, if you hear me complain about this and that over the next week or longer, please remember that it is with a underpinning of gratefulness.  Wanting so much to stay in a place I love is the clinging desire that makes leaving so hard.