How do your Feet execute?
I am pretty sure this is the longest I have had my Feet in the same place… probably since I was born. I am taking yet another class, this one on “The Neuro Science of Change” spending a lot of time on the “embodied self”… and for me, it is always moving. Holding still takes a lot of energy – a paradox I know – but it does for me. Even walking I do quickly – mostly because Dad did, and I had to keep up, but that gave me a distinctive way of being (as they call it now). I was in a meeting to talk about the Space Station with my friend’s old Boss. Afterward, the friend said “He really likes you and said – ‘Anybody that walks that fast, and digs his heels in is going places… stay with him’ “…
Do all Feats deserve your Feet?
… my Feet were literally determining my Feats. Being small, I suspect I learned early that the way you carried yourself mattered, and it stuck with me late into my career. I knew how to walk into a room, take command, and get Feet to moving towards the goal we needed to achieve… until I started to notice that often there was already a pace, a direction that had been set by someone else.… and moving “differently” was not helpful to anyone. I realized that some senior leaders purposefully put teams into conflict to stall out progress by both, to preserve their control over the status quo. Hmm… if I was going to get things executed, I would need to slow down, walk slower and pull them together…
How do you gather the Feet you need?
Kenny Gradney was another member of this extended community who played on the Festival Express across Canada with Delany and Bonnie. Also he was a session player sought out by The Flying Burrito Brothers and the others we have talked about before. He joined the band as the Bass player on their third album and has been there ever since. He also brought along Sam Clayton, a percussionist who got into the field when he was laid off from his “day job” as a drafter… and was asked to sit in on congas at a farewell dinner. Both brought the deep New Orleans Funk and drive to the band that changed their tone and solidified the run they executed through the ’70s as a band for musicians to love. They are featured in the great video for today.
Will Feet keep executing without … you?
… that is immediately recognizable as from the ’80s, complete with hot cars and hot chicks 😉 I am not sure who stole from whom, ZZ Top or Little Feat, but the music here is incredible. While this album is 10 years after their previous studio outing, after the death of Lowell in 1979 at only 34, it sounds like they haven’t missed a beat. In between, many members worked as session musicians on the great records of the 70’s. So many of their albums feature moving, particularly Trains – Red Streamliner, New Delhi Freight Train, Two Trains, and Down The Road. You get the idea that Lowell knew he was not long for this world, and needed to keep moving to stay ahead of things…
Feats need slow and steady Feet…
The class uses a lot of Venn diagrams – which reminded me of lessons I worked on once with a young leader. He wanted to know, like me at his age, why so little actually got accomplished. We went to the whiteboard and started mapping out stakeholders, the goals of each group, and the number of Feet in each group. And… as we drew, the overlap of the circles became less and less as we added each new group. “See that in the middle – to get that Feat done – you have to move all the Feet in these other circles there. Oh – and the leaders of the circles may or may not agree.” Not that it is impossible, but it is a different role – getting all those people to see where their outcome can be achieved better together. Today, ironic for me to say – and a life long struggle of mine: slow down, find the center of the diagram, and then, as the song says… Let it Roll.
