The Meeting of the Month...

Today I went to a meeting that will stick in my mind for the next while. The meeting was supposed to be to train the Business Process Owners at the company I work for. I am the Finance Business Process Owner - a Business Process Owner is basically the person that is responsible for the day-to-day running of the process (manual and IT related) and also the projects that are running that affect our particular process.

Business Process Owners are therefore the management of the company (below the exco level) and therefore generally people who are used to pretty much getting their own way, making their own decisions, using their own initiative, running things and changing things...

Now - put all these people in the same room, give them one goal, presented by someone on the same level as them and what outcome do you get??

Seriously, give it some thought... these people are used to giving instructions...

What you get is heated discussion, disagreement and any number of solutions to the "problem"... anything, but acceptance of the solution. My favourite part is the people who arrived late had the most to say and caused the most damage... It doesn't sound bad when you read this post, but I am not going to bore you with the details.

What I learnt from this is :

The meetings I used to think were bad, are not bad compared to this...

I will never call a meeting of the BPO's...

I will never call a meeting of the BPO's unless the CFO is there to back me up...

If I have to chair a meeting of the BPO's I will have strict rules that ONE person talks at a time and they do not talk while being interrupted... I'd use the "conch" idea...

Man, the meeting was so bad that I, as the youngest person there, had to suggest a "comfort break" so that people would have time to cool down... Then suggest a way that everyone can have their say in a non-highly-assertive manner... what a meeting... what a meeting...

I now wonder how much longer I will last in my current position? The stress levels are not sustainable... Anyway, that is a thought for another day, I'm there to give as much as I can, and learn as much as I can, in the best way possible and somehow in the midst of that be a shining light for God... And boy do I have much to learn on that last point!!