Organizing a Conversational Cloud

Part of my executive training involves watching, learning, and then executing my own brand of organizational thinking. I think I've practiced a fair bit of these thinking skills in grad school, but it's completely different to outline a textbook. In the boardroom, I find that everyone likes their voice to be heard. Everyone has an opinion. It's very much like an large Italian family's dinner, where people are yelling over each other and unless you cut someone off, you won't get to talk.

I also notice that, in the boardroom, folks are often more interested in what they're going to say next, then what you have to say. People wait for others to finish, just so they can say their piece. It's a verbal vomit of epic, technicolor proportions.

On Thursday, St. Fozzie's conducted an all-day strategy meeting. Even though we had a distinct agenda for the day, the morning session was more reminiscent of a large Italian family's dinner. Nothing was accomplished and all we did was talk around 28 topics, in no particular order or structure. It was awful, unproductive, and exhausting.

During the lunch break, I asked Elvis if there was any structure to the morning. He shrugged and admitted he couldn't follow it, either. Well, that's good! If the CEO's also lost, then I can cut myself some slack. :) However, I still had to document the morning, as it was my responsibility to create an action plan out of the verbal vomit, which meant I had to adhere the material to some sort of structure.

The afternoon session was much better, as the EVOO boss stepped up and enforced the agenda. That part was easy to organize, but I still struggled with how to best capture the morning's conversation and formulate it into steps. Later, I hunched over my desk and made some sense out of everything. This is one area in which I still need practice...how do I harness these verbose and assertive personalities? How do I keep people on track, to best address the items in the agenda? And how do I get through these long meetings without requiring vast amounts of sugar? I actually excused myself at break to visit the hospital's gift shop and pick up a bag of candy corn!