It’s a sad commentary on organizational life when I am actually looking forward to spending five hours on a plane tomorrow and then another five when I return home on Friday (a repeat of last week’s round-trip).

Why this anticipation? Because I will finally have some time to catch up on a huge pile of reading.

Airports are a hassle, the planes are jammed, and the only food comes in a box for $5. We all know that air travel has gone a long way in the wrong direction in the last few years.

One good thing remains…at least for now. That is the absence of phone calls, email, and people walking in the door asking “for a minute.”

Being distracted from what you are doing is bad enough. But, being distracted from that interruption by another interruption, and on and on, is maddening. Pretty soon you can’t remember what you were originally trying to do.

That’s why I like traveling by plane; actually, it’s about the only thing left to like about air travel.

So, if you want to talk to me tomorrow between 2PM and 7PM, you’re out of luck.

Send me an email, because when I get to my destination the hotel has Internet service and I’ll be back in cyberspace, but not until then.

In a post several weeks ago, I told you that I would provide periodic updates on our firm’s learnings as we go through an internal transformation process. Some recent developments in this ongoing process include:

• Bill Coy, formerly Senior Associate and Director of Human Resources, was promoted to Senior Manager. Bill has been with the firm for 8 years, and specializes in both merger work and human resources consulting. Both require his outstanding interpersonal and facilitation skills. Bill is also a member of our business management team.

• Kristen Godard, formerly an Associate, was promoted to Director of Operations. Kristen manages all of our business processes, leads the business management team, and also coordinates intake and assignment of projects to our consulting teams.

• Luis Vergara, Senior Associate, assumed the role of Director of Marketing and Business Development. Luis will continue to do consulting, splitting his time between client work and this new role. He will join Bill and Kristen as members of the business management team.

• Bob Harrington and Liza Culick, Senior Managers, and Jo DeBolt and Lester Olmstead-Rose, Senior Associates–four of our most experienced consultants–will provide case supervision to the rest of the consulting staff.

• Our two Practice Groups are underway, serving as vehicles for ongoing learning among our staff in key areas of our practice. The Strategic Restructuring Practice Group is led by Bob Harrington; Jo Debolt and I co-lead the Business Planning Practice Group.