I don't recall ever reading this story of how the Mountain West came to be as presidents from Colorado State, Utah, Wyoming & BYU, as well as Air Force's Superintendent met at the Denver airport to work through breaking away from the WAC. Former Wyoming Prez & current Charlotte Chancellor Dubois points to the WAC moving to divisions as one of the fracturing points, "Many of us were really quite upset at the decision that the athletic directors had made about the formation of these two divisions without any input from us, the presidents. I’m finding out I’m not going to be playing Air Force or CSU? Those were the two biggest gates for us." More Dubois: "We all felt it had to be done in a clandestine way. There was concern if political entities got involved, like the California General Assembly, that we wouldn’t be able to do it. We really did want a coup d’etat… We ended up calling Steve Weber at San Diego State and Carol Harter at UNLV and Bill (Gordon) at New Mexico and inviting them in. It was kind of, 'We need to hear from you by the end of the week or see you.'" Interestingly, former Colorado State sports information director Ozzello says he, nor then-Rams AD Weiser had any idea until they were called to former CSU Prez Yates' office & told the department was headed to the newly formed conference. MWC Commish Thompson indicates the early operations were like drinking out of a fire hose. Lots more. (link)

IDEO portfolio director Henkel and Wharton School professor and author Grant co-author for the HBR: "To Get Employees to Empathize With Customers, Make Them Think Like Customers." Step 1) Gather insights; 2) Get outside; 3) Get creative; and, 4) Invite a group of people to go through the exercise and talk about it. "It’s often said that necessity is the mother of invention. Sometimes we generate ideas to address our own needs. But in many cases, it’s the necessity of others that drives us to innovate. Empathy isn’t optional in problem-solving. It can drive creative breakthroughs." (link)