Friday Five: Meetings

At RevGalBlogPals, Reverend Mother writes:

In honor of a couple of marathon meetings I attended this week:

1. What's your view of meetings? Choose one or more, or make up your own:
a) When they're good, they're good. I love the feeling of people working well together on a common goal.
b) I don't seek them out, but I recognize them as a necessary part of life.
c) The only good meeting is a canceled meeting.
I guess b. Some (a very few) meetings are good, but so often we seem to go around the same mountain again and again and again.

2. Do you like some amount of community building or conversation, or are you all business?
I tend to be all business, but part of my CPE learning as we studied servant leadership is about the importance of the relationships in productivity. As I wait for my next step (see previous post) I am thinking about how I can be more intentional to focus on relationships as well as task.

3. How do you feel about leading meetings? Share any particular strengths or weaknesses you have in this area.
I'd rather lead than follow most of the time. I get frustrated when I'm not the leader and we seem to be going nowhere. At the same time, I have much to learn about leading. One thing CPE did for me is show me how little I know, and how much room I have to grow.

4. Have you ever participated in a virtual meeting? (conference call, IM, chat, etc.) What do you think of this format?
The closest I've come to this was having one sister on my cell phone and one on my land line while we tried to make holiday plans. It worked pretty well.

5. Share a story of a memorable meeting you attended.
This summer I was working with a couple of other people to create a inservice bulletin board - not just cute, needed to convey information. One person in the group wanted to discuss many possible themes. I was ready to just pick one and move on. We had a deadline to meet! In my frustration, I finally said I would step out of the process until the decision was made. Then I'd be happy to do what ever was needed to make the project happen. As I visited with the other person later, we discussed our different approaches. I mentioned that she liked to consider lots of options. With a huge smile and a spark in her eye she replied, "Yeah, it's like shopping." . I replied, "Exactly! I hate shopping." Well between the two of us and a third person who didn't have many opinions but was a great worker bee we managed to create a great product. It truely takes all types.