My Precarious Journey to Barcelona
Ralph Kilmann
Co-Author of the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI): Celebrating the TKI's 50th Anniversary Year (1974–2024)
My Behind-the-Scenes Adventures While Conducting Executive Programs Throughout the World
In this series of articles, I will take you behind the scenes of my global adventures conducting executive programs and delivering keynote presentations. Join me as I share my most entertaining and often humorous stories from my decades on the road. You can subscribe to ensure you never miss an article.
Between 1987 and 1988, I spent about one week every month in Barcelona, Spain, consulting for a company that was implementing my multi-track program for corporate transformation. On average, I stayed in that city about five days every month, conducting my programs for about 250 managers and executives in that company.
Typically, on a Monday evening every month, after teaching my afternoon doctoral seminar at the University of Pittsburgh, I would fly from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, where my British Airways plane would then pick up some additional passengers before continuing on its direct flight to London. Once I arrived in London and went through customs, I would then take a flight to Barcelona on Iberia Airlines. Several days later, usually on Saturday of that same week, I would then reverse my trusty route that brought me there in order to travel back to Pittsburgh, so I could again teach my doctoral seminar on Monday afternoon as well as attend to my other university responsibilities during the rest of the week.
As noted, I followed this same routine, once a month, for almost two years. In addition, since I was taking that long, cross-Atlantic trip to Europe, I often extended my stay and traveled to other nearby countries in order to deliver additional keynote presentations or conduct some other top-management programs—before returning to Pittsburgh. It seemed I was constantly “on the road again,” as melodically captured in Willie Nelson’s famous song of that same title.
During my two-year consulting project in Barcelona, the senior executives of that company would occasionally ask me to deliver a presentation or workshop to a group of executives from other companies in Spain in order to inspire those other Spanish companies to also proceed with corporate transformation. The goal was to encourage all those Spanish companies (and Spain as a whole) to become more competitive with their counterparts in other European nations. In fact, in 1986, Spain joined the “European Communities” (12 countries in total at that time), which would later become the European Union in 1993, after the fall of communism and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was clear to me that many Spanish companies knew they had to transform their way of doing business in order to succeed in a much larger—unified—European marketplace.
On one particular occasion, the CEO of that Barcelona company asked me to present my approach to transforming organizations to about 50 distinguished senior executives from other Spanish companies who were already successful inside Spain, but were concerned just how well their organizations would fare when they had to complete with other European companies. Not surprisingly, such an important program had to be planned many months in advance in order to coordinate the travel schedules of those very busy senior executives. To do justice to the anticipated importance of my presenting a completely integrated program for achieving long-term organizational success, the chosen venue for this program was a fancy resort hotel on the top of a mountain, just outside the city of Barcelona. I was absolutely delighted to have been given this opportunity to further extend the reach of my work to several more organizations in Spain—in such a beautiful setting.
I scheduled my usual flights from Pittsburgh to Barcelona. A private car would then meet me at the Barcelona airport and transport me to that mountain-top resort. I was especially looking forward to this exciting adventure, not realizing that simply getting there would be much more demanding than I could ever have imagined beforehand.
When it was time for me to take this special trip to Spain, there was a snowstorm already taking place on the East Coast of the U.S. Since my flights were neither canceled nor delayed, I proceeded on my journey. However, when my Pittsburgh flight was descending on its assigned runway at the Philadelphia International Airport, my plane grazed a service van that had lost its way, due to the blistering snow that had been falling for several hours. Even though we landed safely (after experiencing a huge jolt just before we touched down on the runway), the plane was damaged in the incident and therefore could not continue on its scheduled flight to London. Moreover, there were currently no available planes to take the place of the damaged one. The remainder of my flights to London and Barcelona, therefore, were officially cancelled.
Once all us passengers departed the damaged plane, I checked the flight schedules in the airport lounge: There were no more flights to London that evening. The next flight from Philadelphia to London wouldn’t depart until the next evening. But I had to be in Barcelona tomorrow, since my presentation to those 50 Spanish executives was scheduled to take place the following morning in that mountain-top resort. If I waited for the next flight to London from Philadelphia (tomorrow evening), I wouldn’t arrive in Barcelona in time to attend my own presentation.
In my mind, there was no way I could miss that executive meeting on the mountain top just outside of Barcelona, which had been arranged six months earlier. I had to be there. Period. If that special event did not take place as scheduled, it would be especially disappointing (perhaps even embarrassing) for the Barcelona company that was sponsoring my presentation for those executives from several other companies.
As such, I was in desperate need of a Plan B.
After waiting on a long line to speak to an airport concierge, I learned that there was only one possible way through my current predicament: As it turned out, British Airways did have a flight the next morning at 9 am, which would get me to London the same day, so I could take a later flight from there to Barcelona and still arrive in the evening. But there was a catch: That morning flight to London did not depart from the Philadelphia International Airport (as I already knew from the evening before) but was scheduled to depart from the JFK International Airport in Jamaica, Queens, New York City … which was more than 100 miles from my current location.
Basically, proceeding with Plan B, I would first have to rent a car and drive—through a snowstorm—to arrive at JFK Airport in Jamaica, Queens, by early morning. Ordinarily, the driving time would be about 2 hours between the two airports. But with the bad weather, it was hard to say how much additional time would be needed for my drive to New York City. However, it was now 9:00 pm in the evening, so there would not be any traffic jams on the road going north, other than what slowdowns might occur from the storm. Since I had to arrive in Barcelona tomorrow (so I could deliver my presentation the very next morning), it seemed I had no other choice.
More specifically, that flight to London was scheduled to depart from JFK at 9:00 am in the morning, New York Time, which was 2:00 pm in the afternoon, London Time. That flight was scheduled to arrive at 6:00 pm in the evening, London Time. Doing the math, given those departure and arrival times (taking into account the 1-hour difference in time zone) suggested a four-hour flight. But I knew very well that it usually takes about 8 hours to fly from New York to London, with an average jet speed of about 600 miles per hour. Yet British Airlines was offering that same flight in half the time? Naturally, I asked the concierge: “How is this flight time even possible?”
The concierge then informed me that the Concorde (a supersonic jet that can travel more than 1200 miles per hour) would be making the flight, which would only take half of the usual flight time. Naturally, I (or rather my client) had to pay for the difference in airline fees (since the Concorde flight was much more expensive). But for the time being, money was no object in this adventure: I had to be in Barcelona in time for my presentation! Once I made the reservation for the Concorde (and paid the extra fee), I phoned my contact person in Spain who was coordinated all my educational programs there. I let him know that I would keep him abreast of any changes in my travel schedule. But if everything worked as planned, he would pick me up at the Barcelona airport and drive me straightaway to that mountain-top resort.
After I picked up my one suitcase in the baggage claim area, a service van took me to the airport rental car place. It was now about 10:45 pm in the evening. Because of the storm, they only had two cars left to rent. I was in luck!
By midnight, I was already driving on the road to New York City, thoroughly exhausted from the unexpected events on my trip so far—but I had to keep going. I also had to drive as safely as possible, given the bad weather. In fact, my average speed was only about 40 miles an hour on the New Jersey highway (the posted speed limit was 65 miles an hour), since I had trouble seeing the road through the swirling snowfall.
I finally arrived at the JFK International Airport by 4:00 am in the morning. I had a few hours before I had to check in for my 9:00 am flight on the Concorde. But before I returned my rental car at the airport, I parked on a nearby street, set the alarm on my digital watch, and did my best to rest my eyes and maybe even sleep for a few hours.
At 7:30 am, I was already at the gate, where I then boarded my Concorde flight. Finally, the process was going smoothly. I must say: It was really nice experiencing that super-fast mode of transportation and flying so high in the sky (60,000 feet above sea level) that you could see the curvature of the Earth. As tired as I was, I kept looking out the little window by my seat as I marveled at this amazing technology that would hopefully allow me to fulfill my professional commitment to that inspired group of Spanish executives. Good news: The Concorde arrived in London pretty much on schedule at about 6:15 pm in the evening, local time.
Then I faced the next nightmare on my precarious journey to Barcelona.
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When I entered the large room in the Heathrow Airport for going through customs, I was shocked to see a few hundred people who were waiting on a very, very long line to present their passport to a row of customs agents (and answer any questions about their trip and its purpose). My first response: “Oh my God. It’ll take me a few hours to get thought that line!” Since I had missed my previous connection from London to Barcelona (because my plane from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia was damaged when it hit a van on the runway), I had to purchase a new plane ticket to Barcelona. I had already discovered that there was only one available flight this evening to that airport, leaving London at 7:45 pm and arriving in Barcelona at 11:00 pm, local time. If I missed that last flight to Barcelona, I wouldn’t get to deliver my presentation as scheduled. I would, once again, be in the exact same predicament as I had been in Philadelphia, just the evening before.
Basically, for me to make it to Barcelona so I could deliver my presentation to those executives on the very next morning, I first had to get through customs, next I had to make my way to the ticket counter in the airport lobby so I could purchase my ticket to Barcelona (and check in my suitcase), and then I had to sprint to the departing gate in time to make the flight, which was only 90 minutes from now. Keep in mind: There was no Internet in those days, so I couldn’t process anything online (such as scheduling my flight to Barcelona, let alone purchasing my airline ticket). I had to get to the right ticket counter, in person, which could only work if I got through customs in a hurry and then make it to the ticket counter in a very short period of time.
With my one suitcase in tow, I walked up to a uniformed customs agent who was positioned in the back of the room and asked him if there was some way that I could get to the front of the customs line, since I had to catch the last flight that evening to Barcelona. I told him that I had to make a keynote presentation the following morning, which was arranged for 50 executives more than six months ago. I exaggerated a little when I added that my professional reputation was at stake, so he would be sure to know that I really needed his help.
The customs agent listened intently and then said: “Everyone in this room has to be somewhere else by yesterday. I’m sorry for your situation, but you’ll have to wait on the same customs line, just like everyone else.” I also listened intently, but I wasn’t pleased with his response, so I asked again: “Isn’t there some way I can get through this line more quickly?” Again, the customs agent responded, “I’m sorry, Sir. But there is nothing I or anyone else can do. Everyone has to wait on the same line before going through customs. Several planes must have landed about the same time, which results in these long custom lines.”
It now seemed that this latest obstacle to my getting to Barcelona on time had thoroughly defeated me. Nevertheless, I thanked him for his consideration and began walking away to get on that very long line as soon as possible—even though the effort would be fruitless in the end. But a few seconds later, I instinctively turned around and walked back to that same customer agent and tried one more time to compel him to join me on my sacred mission: “I appreciate what you are saying, sir, but are you telling me that there is no way under the sun, no workaround, no loophole, no alternative … that would allow me to get to the front of the line?”
This time, the customs agent seemed to express a little more compassion on his face, as if another approach had miraculously, yet instantly, emerged from the deep recesses in his mind. He responded with a brand-new perspective on the current situation: “It seems you are going to keep pestering me for the rest of the evening unless I help you. How about this: If you promise to leave me alone and never bother me again, I’ll take you to the front of the customs line. Just follow me and all will be well.”
He proceeded to walk to the front of the customs line, with me right behind him. In a few moments, I was in the front of the line, showed my passport to the person who sat behind the counter and then answered his standard questions about why I was visiting London.
As soon as I had cleared customs, I thanked my dear friend who had stood right beside me for the entire time, and then I dashed to the designated counter in the airport lobby to purchase an airline ticket (and check in my suitcase) for that last evening flight to Barcelona.
When I was settled in my seat on the plane, I finally could take some deep breaths and reflect on the last 24 hours of my facing—and then surmounting—one roadblock after another on my very long journey to that distant mountain top. Yes, in the end, I made it to my intended destination on time and delivered my presentation to that inspired group of senior executives. Years later, I still marvel at all I had to go through, behind the scenes, to share my theories and methods with people and organizations around the globe.
Also in this series:
Kilmann Diagnostics offers a series of eleven recorded online courses and nine assessment tools on the four timeless topics: conflict management, change management, consciousness, and transformation. By taking these courses and passing the Final Exams, you can earn your Certification in Conflict and Change Management with the Thomas-Kilmann Instrument (TKI). For the most up-to-date and comprehensive discussion of Dr. Kilmann’s theories and methods, see his 2021 Legacy Book: Creating a Quantum Organization: The Whys & Hows of Implementing Eight Tracks for Long-Term Success.
Image by Chris Jones from Pixabay