The Agenda

Patience is an effort - punchy is easy. Is this true for anyone else? At work I have so many things on the go … I’m bouncing from fire to fire to fire … I feel like I don’t have time to think … I react … I’m reactive and not proactive. It's exhausting. I feel overwhelmed. 

I don’t like this state of being. I’m usually good at navigating chaos … Seeing what I need, asking the questions that help me prioritize, help me problem solve … 

I’m unsure if AI is compounding this problem or solving this problem or a little of both? 

The people around me are exhausted, the pace and complexity of the operational problems we face have intensified … I know throwing more people at the problem isn’t the answer … Truth be told, I know the answer is a combination of tooling, processes and people … It’s prioritizing correctly, putting time in on those key objectives to drive change in the RIGHT places … the impactful places.

It’s giving myself permission to move into strategic thinking so I have a minute to see the path forward … To tweak our area of focus and give the team permission to re-focus their energy.

Easy answers right?

It is. 

So why do I have a problem? 

Protecting my time is becoming a full-time job.

Last week is a perfect example of what this looks like. Someone sent me and my colleague a meeting invite titled “Metrics.” That is the entirety of the context I was given.  It pissed me off.  Why?  It’s just a 30 minute call. 

It pissed me off because it happens all the time. It places the responsibility on me to navigate expected outcomes -  or worse … 30 minutes comes and goes and I have no idea if the meeting was successful or a valuable use of my time.  

My time is valuable.  My time is finite. My time should be spent focussed on supporting key deliverables, developing people, removing blocks preventing the execution of key work or helping mitigate large-scale incidents etc. etc. 

What upset me more - when I asked what the objective of the meeting was, I was given a lecture (complete with reading material) on strategic initiatives, a side bar informing me that senior leadership was a part of back channel conversations and supported the work of the individual. In short - they either didn’t know the objective or didn’t have one. 

This actually made me angrier. 

If you are trying to solve a problem but don’t know how and need help - that’s the objective.  Put it on the table. 

I pushed back. I know the strategic objectives. I am not connecting the dots between those and this call. Connect them for me.  

The time and effort it took to get an agenda was ridiculous. Should I have declined the meeting invite with the note -  I don’t accept invites with no agenda as I can’t see how my attendance adds value. Probably. Does this place have that culture established? Not at all. It’s annoying. 

Don’t misunderstand - I’m not anti-meeting. Meetings are necessary. They can create value and drive execution - when they are well run. In my mind a well run meeting has a clear objective - something it’s trying to achieve or solve. It has included the resources who support meeting those objectives and is long enough to ensure they have the time to do that. Plan accordingly. 

More times than not I am on calls with no agenda, an agenda that’s not followed because expectations haven’t been set or no one is facilitating the meeting. I am not the only one at work who is exhausted and/or overwhelmed. I honestly believe there is a correlation between the two. I want to believe I’m not the only one who thinks that.

When I told my boss I had pushed back on the agenda and why, he was surprised. Not because I pushed back but because I think he had forgotten the fundamental basics of a well run meeting … To be clear - he follows these basics but I think forgets that that’s an anomaly in our workplace and the impact poorly run meetings have when you compound them over a day, a week, a month - insert exhausted, insert overwhelmed, insert punchy.

I timebox to allow for planning, heads down work, re-prioritization etc. I’ve gotten lax on creating an agenda for myself. 

I’m picking up bad habits from the environment around me - groans - I have enough of my own, I don’t need anyone else’s. 

That’s the fun part about getting annoyed with other people's behaviour - figuring out why it’s annoying me. Sometimes it’s legit - our standards are different. Sometimes if forces me to look at my own behaviour.  Don’t get me wrong - the lack of an agenda is a legit reason to be annoyed - totally legit! But I can’t judge them and not judge myself against the same bar.  Well - usually the bar for myself is higher, but you get my point. 

Agendas were the hill … At least they were last week. I am in the process of reviewing my meetings to ensure agendas are clear, participants make sense and outcomes are owned. Even if it's just a meeting with myself. 

It feels like a win when I can make a change to a part of my life which leaves me annoying myself less. Even if it’s a small change. Even if it’s a small win. 

Agendas - for me - organize chaos … They are a tool to help me organize my thoughts, prioritize my time, my effort, help me maintain or create accountability … 

Pausing too long in chaos and I get overwhelmed. I get punchy. I get easily annoyed. I end up exhausted. Channeling chaos into productive, useful energy … Action lives in that transformation. I need action.  Sometimes the small things have big impacts … sometimes all it takes is an agenda.