Cleveland Bridges NOT Falling Down...

This past Saturday morning, my family and some friends ventured down to the area around the Cleveland zoo, where the city had announced that they were going to demolish a bridge that was almost 100 years old.

For those of you who have never been to the Cleveland Zoo, when you walk through parts of the zoo, you walk under this enormous old bridge. I remember being very young walking under that bridge.

I will miss that bridge ... there was something strangely comforting about walking under the shade of that structure on a hot and sunny visit to the zoo.

But back to Saturday.

Over 700 pounds of explosives were supposed to be detonated at about 8:00 a.m. EST, causing the bridge to collapse in about 5 seconds.

The problem was: it didn't happen that way. It took several attempts to blow up the bridge, and my understanding is that part of it is still standing today, three days later.

Here's a video from YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g_ndpXYRp8

The lessons for leaders?

How something is planned and how that same plan is execute are often two very different things. Emotionally intelligent leaders plan for such a series of events.