A four-year old was asked to bring her favorite thing to pre-school. "She brought Norm," said the speaker, introducing the recipient of the NACD Lifetime Achievement Award tonight. Norm Augustine (long list of major positions in companies, non-profits, government, and academia) then clarified, saying that in fact his granddaughter was asked to bring "a really old thing."
You never know who's going to bring down the house but Norm really did. The room was dark (it was a banquet where a number of people got awards, MSNBC's Norah O'Donell hosted, and Senator Amy Klobuchar presented another award) so I couldn't scribble down all the funny things he said but just take this advice: If you ever get an award, be like his granddaughter. Bring Norm, virtually speaking. Be funny. And self-effacing. It really works.
I'd gone to a session earlier in the day ("The Board's Role in Corporate Strategy") where Norm, Peter Boneparth, and Beverly Behan held a lively discussion about who should set strategy, board or management, (Peter had a good formula: "Management creates it, the board trouble shoots it, management carries it out").
There, Norm had explained something that has vexed me for years. Why, when you're shutting down a PC, do you hit "start?" Norm's explanation: It was designed by engineers (among whom he numbers himself).
