In doing anything that will be a “collaborative process” I cringe a bit. Yes, this is the adult version of group work from back in grade school. I find there are 3 kinds of people when it comes to work done in this collective fashion: 1) The delegator, some might call this the leader but as a person who himself demonstrates great leaderships skills I know that this role is best filled by someone who is of maximum laziness and therefore inclined to volunteer only to determine who else does the work. 2) The Proletariat the people who get the job done, they make most of the calls do most of the labor and ultimately take least of the credit. 3) The slackers these are the ones who skate by volunteer nothing and ultimately get a grade elevated by the work of the others.
When, if ever do these three distinct social animals meet? Why at the meeting and what does this meeting usually accomplish? It accomplishes the necessary clarification of the aforementioned roles and allows for possible defection to a different role. I find that as a delegator most of my energy is devoted to avoiding these meetings since the redundancy of overstated tasks can seem to compound the real material of concern and breeds only confusion and panic. The only questions at a meeting should be brief and specific to the concern that is most forthcoming.
D: “You have that set up and ready with blah blah considered?”
P: “Yeah.”
D: All in favor?
S: “Yeah.”
D: “And we’re done.”
And now I find myself tired of this one sided meeting with myself so I’m done . . . I know what’s next, dinner.