The Future of Management
Introduction
It was a Tuesday, September 11, 2001. I had been up long enough to pour myself a cup of coffee and head for the shower to get ready for another day at the office. Going through my normal shower and wake up ritual of holding my head under the steamy hot water, I glanced out through the shower curtain and saw the silhouette of my wife as she entered the bathroom. I said good morning and waited for a response, but heard only sobbing. An unusual and rather odd response to say the least, so I looked out from behind the curtain and saw my wife standing there crying, she muttered, "someone flew a plane into the World Trade Center." My immediate response was the typical under reaction, often triggered by my wife's highly developed emotions.
As my brain attempted to process the information that it had just been given, I vaguely recall thinking it was probably not an accident, but rather a suicide. I had no idea just how right on that gut feeling was, or to the level or extent at which it would play out that day. I went downstairs, turned on the TV and fumbled through television channels to try and catch a glimpse of what in the hell was going on and to see what CNN was reporting. The second plane had hit the second tower during the time it took me to find the right TV channel. I stood there dumbfounded as they replayed over and over again the second plane hitting Tower Two. Our nation was under attack, and like many others, I watched and listened to the horrifying stories as reported by the news and eyewitnesses for several days after. A shocked nation now had to figure out what this all meant.
The 9/11 attack had affected my family in more ways than one. First, my sister-in-law was working at the Pentagon at the time. I do not ...