Repeat after me.

I distinctly remember the first time I was in a meeting with a former boss and heard him state verbatim some ideas and suggestions I'd offered to him just hours before the meeting. Say what? I also remember feeling a bit surprised. I guess I had expected him to say something along the lines of …

Let’s do the time warp again.

In just a few short weeks, I’ve been a part of several conversations that had a time warp quality. I thought perhaps I was time traveling to the late 90s. Here are some of the gems I heard: “Weren’t you surprised that someone was actually going to our website to monitor what we’re doing?” “Oh, …

Declare success.

Sometimes I despise email. Do you enjoy the barrage of email that follows an initial concern about something we're not doing on campus? Mind you, my frustration doesn't come from the concern expressed but instead from the idea that a meaningful discussion of how to solve a complex problem is possible via a listserv. I …

Making the big “D”

Meetings are for making decisions. Period. If you're using them just to exchange information and updates, set up a listserv. Worse yet, if you're using them to punish the whole class instead of the one individual who needs direction, you're wasting the time of many and you're not likely to get the results you want. …

Did you just say that?

Who knows how many meetings I've attended. We're just 23 days into 2011, and I've already been to 36. Because I spend so many waking hours this way, I love it when a good line comes out of these group scenes. It might be amusing, entertaining, or instructional for you if I occasionally blog about …

“Don’t get into a pissing match with a skunk.”

Twenty-five years ago, I had a boss who was a pretty odd duck - I have a lot of great stories about him. But what I remember most was a piece of advice he gave me one day. He said, "Don't get into a pissing match with a skunk." I'm pretty sure he didn't coin …