Just a quick note. I had a conversation the other day about driving somebody — boss, customer, co-worker, ally — to the airport. Isn’t that an unproductive way to spend time?

Not necessarily.

I had a big win once by offering to drive the visiting CEO of the parent company from the San Jose office of Creative Strategies to the San Francisco airport, about an hour a way. Details are irrelevant, but what might be useful is the value of having somebody’s ear for an hour.

That’s something that worked for me once.