NOTE: This is the latest in an ongoing series of quick dispatches from the trail - things I pick up from airports, hotels, cabs, meetings - anywhere really, in hopes that at least some of the observations will be interesting and even worthwhile. And also, since being out on the road for work usually throws off the schedule and gives me less time to worry about the little blog here, these Notes from the Road pieces have a internal timer set at 15 minutes. Whatever ideas, no matter how half-baked or thinly developed, get the 'Publish' treatment at the 15-minute mark.
Ready, set, go. Fifteen minutes starts now.
Sometimes when you travel quite often the cities, towns, streets, airports, rental cars, and restaurants start to blend together into an almost indistinguishable collage of, well, 'somewhere else-ness.' You can really easily see the places you go and the organizations and people that you see as not being all that different from the next organization you've just visited, or the one you'll be calling on tomorrow or next week. The uniform blandness that is perpetuated by the endless series of 'pretty much exactly the same so you know what to expect' series of Starbucks, Applebees, Outback, Marriotts, and McDonalds that you encounter pretty much where ever you go.
Ever had one of these?All this 'sameness' is comforting in a way, I suppose. The challenges and stress of business travel often drives us to make choices that are low risk and low reward when in comes to lodging, eating, socializing, etc. It is hard enough to be away from home and the home office, who needs to wander lost in a strange town trying to find a local gastropub to sample some free-range chicken and a microbrew. Not when 5 dollar foot-longs are just off the interstate.
Last night I was driving home, from Cleveland to Rochester, about a 260 mile drive. On the one stop I made for gas and a Diet Coke, (at a small, non 'name brand' gas station), I picked up a handful of chocolate candies, one of them (the only one I did not eat), is pictured on the right. It is called an 'Ice Cube', and I had never seen them before. I asked the clerk about them, and she said they were really good, and it was impossible to have only one. I took her at her word, and she was right. They are really good. I bet I ate 5 or 6 in between Erie, PA and home.
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I actually have no idea if 'Ice Cubes' are a local, Ohio or Midwest delicacy or not. They could be sold anywhere and everywhere for all I know. But I had never seen them before, and the only way I would have seen them was by stopping in this local station somewhere east of Cleveland. I probably never would have bought some unless I took a minute to ask the clerk about them. And its quite likely I may never have them again, unless I have to bo back to Cleveland.
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But I was glad that I did sample some of these little treats. If nothing else they gave me a good reminder that while we can allow ourselves to be fooled into thinking that the places we go, the people we see, and the organizations that we work with are really kind of the same, and therefore our strategies to working with and helping them can be the same as well; that often the small differences in these situations are the important ones to notice. Understanding these differences is often the key to truly relating, understanding, empathisizing.
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We can't always try and apply our Snickers bar solutions in a place that loves their Ice Cubes.
Steve
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