Looking up

Today on the way in I caught one of the user experience directors in the stairway and told him that I was not going to be following one of his & the VP's main recommendations from our design review, and why. He was like, "Ok, yeah, whatever you feel is best; just make sure you're good with your manager on it." My hiring manager is out of the country. My actual manager is also out of the country. My acting manager is out of state. I guess I'm in the clear! I also chatted with him for a few seconds about some state-of-the-department type stuff. It's good to know that at least the higher-ups have a pulse on what's going on overall, even if they're out of touch on some important specifics (no fault of their own, there's so much going on and there are so many viewpoints to listen to, it's impossible to keep up). They definitely seem to need help, though. I'm beginning to wonder if I can do for this company what I did for four others in the past; play my ace card, pull my special move, spread on my secret sauce. Hmm, how to make it work with so many a chef de partie in the kitchen...