Photo Credit: No credit needed
Editor’s Note: This column, “LBWA” (Leadership By Wandering Around), is based on the premise that, in order to find out what’s going on in the field, a parks and rec leader has to leave his or her desk and “wander around” the area of operations, talk to people, ask questions, and kick around ideas with the individuals in the thick of delivering services to the public. So the author will bring up issues and ask the leaders among the readership to share their knowledge and experiences.
Besides all the excessive forms of communication we have assaulting us on a day-to-day basis (land lines, cell phones, e-mails, Blackberries, Blueberries, whatever Berries, etc.), I guess the next biggest consumer of our limited time is meetings.
Now, I don’t really have a problem with meetings; very often a sit-down meeting “eyeball-to-eyeball” with someone is the best way to get to the heart of the matter. What bugs me is when people waste everybody’s time by not being prepared for a meeting, or for waxing philosophical, rather than getting down to business and moving on.
It drives me up a wall when someone turns what should be a ten-minute meeting into an hour and a half of aimless chatter, leading indecisively nowhere. I just sat through one of these yesterday, which is probably why the burr is still in my saddle.