WASHROOM TECHNIQUES

"Boy, what a waste of time that was!"

Be honest, did you ever say that at the end of a meeting?

If not, you are indeed one of the fortunate few. If so, who did you blame for wasting your time? My guess is you blamed the person who ran the meeting. He or she is the most obvious "blamee." When all is said and done (and it usually is at a meeting), who has the responsibility to insure that your valuable time is not wasted? I'll give you a hint. You were in the shower with that person this morning.

You know intellectually how you use your time is your responsibility, but accepting that fact rationally is difficult and even more difficult is doing anything about it. So what chance do meeting leaders have to correct what's wasting your time if you don't tell them?

In The classic book, The Empowered Manager, Peter Block gives some remarkably practical advice to meeting leaders. He suggests that if you really want to know how well a meeting you are running is going, during the break you should slip into the washroom, go in a stall, put your feet up and listen to what everyone is saying!

Typical meeting scenario:

A leader asks, "Any questions, comments or concerns?" Attendees say, "no," then go on break and complain like hypochondriacs at an AMA convention. Back in the meeting after the break, leader asks for any questions or comments before going on and is greeted with total silence. And after the meeting, the "waste of time" litany commences.

Lesson:  Only you can waste your time.

BUSY

Born

Busy, Busy, busy

Busy, busy, busy

Busy, busy, busy

 Die





Lesson: Be busy being bodacious.

WHO TOOK WHAT FROM WHOM?

Many years ago our son Dave was home with us for winter holiday break. He was attending the University of Iowa. We hadn't seen him for a while, and this promised to be a good time. It was, up until he received -- the telephone call.

The call came from one of his roommates. Their house had been robbed and all of Dave's expensive musical instruments and sound equipment was gone.

Dave worked very hard to be able to afford these treasured items. As might be expected, he was one discouraged temporarily ex-musician. Then, an all-to-human phenomenon occurred. Dave began to concentrate on all he had lost. And once that "lost train" leaves the station, it just picks up speed.

Dave lost more, he lost sleep, lost appetite, lost temper and lost time on his vacation by cutting it short to get back to the scene of the crime.

Our second born gave to the antisocial misfits more than they had taken. Sure the pukes took his equipment, but Dave chose to give the knuckle-draggers his sleep, appetite, temper and vacation. He quickly recognized this line of thinking was not very productive. It didn't get his equipment back, nor did it punish the materially disadvantaged cretins. The only one being punished was Dave, and he was doing it to himself!

What happened, happened. How to make silk out of this sow's ear was now the question. So Dave in his creative and customarily optimistic style reframed the situation. He was no longer "stolen from," his equipment was merely "borrowed by an unidentified person without his permission for an indefinite period of time."

Case closed, on with life.

Lesson:  People may take your "things," but you are the only one that can let them steal your moments.