Tuesday, June 1, 2010

The Meeting – Establish a Time Limit

After thirty minutes, I decided to point out that I had to leave at 11:00.

By 10;30 I had sat through thirty minutes of monologue, and wasn’t sure where the conversation was going to end, if indeed it was ever going to end.

My fault in part; I could have asked in the first two minutes that we establish a goal for the meeting (even if that had been established by email – it wouldn’t hurt to confirm) and that we acknowledge each other’s time, that at least one of us might have to leave earlier than another.

Since I was the visitor and my host was the resident, the anxiety fell on me; how to terminate the discussion, and would I have achieved anything worthwhile at the time I had to leave?

In the end the answer was no; I gained no benefit at all from the meeting, and I doubt whether my host gained anything at all.

Management Measures!

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