Managers at the Tri-State Hospital Foundation will be having
a meeting later this afternoon to discuss plans for the meeting they are having
next week.
Foundation CEO Joan Snidely called for the meeting after the
end of the last management meeting yesterday in which not much of anything was
accomplished. After a lengthy discussions, the one hour meeting ended with no
progress on any of the ten agenda items.
“I can’t understand how we have so many meetings all the
time and yet nothing seems to get done. We talk and talk and yet we walk away
with the same problems. It’s very strange,” said Snidely. “That’s why I decided
that what we needed to do was to have a planning meeting before our regular
manager’s meeting next week. That way, I’m sure we’ll be able to achieve our
goals.”
Each meeting is constructed the same way. Agenda items are
solicited from managers the day before, by Snidely’s assistant, Lucy. They are
then triaged by Snidely and added to the agenda, which is distributed the
morning before the meeting. A typical manager’s meeting starts with each
manager sharing new information. Snidely, who chairs the meeting, is supposed
to steer the rest of the discussion towards addressing each remaining agenda
item. However, something usually goes terribly wrong with the agenda
immediately after the meeting is called to order.
“Last meeting, I talked and talked and talked. And so did
everybody else. I can’t remember what anyone said, but we all seemed to come to
the same consensus that something was wrong with our meetings and we needed to
do something about it,” said Snidely. “That, and the fact that the Hospital’s
Director of Communications is a fruitcake. And that the CEO is going to be
fired soon. And that there’s a sale on 12-pack toilet paper at Costco this
week.”
“And we heard from Cathy about her trouble with her husband,
Dan, who is having virility challenges. We also got on the topic of teenage
children and their cell phone use, which I have a real problem with. I told
them all about my daughter Clancy and her abuse of her cell phone and how she
wanted a new iPhone, but that I said no because she wasn’t showing responsibility.”
“Lunch was just around the corner, so Mary shared with us
her visit to the new bistro down the street over by the florists, which is run
by the most charming Asian couple who really should be on our major gifts list,
but aren’t because of the sloppy work of our database entry clerk Geraldine for
which we should really get rid of her.”
“And after all that talking, we didn’t seem to get anything
done. I can’t understand it,” said Snidely.
The new planning process will see agenda items solicited
from manager’s the day before by Snidely’s assistant, Lucy. Then Snidely will
triage them and add the top items to the agenda, which will be distributed before
the meeting. The planning meeting will start with each manager sharing their
ideas on how to make manager’s meetings more productive. Snidely, who chairs
the meeting, will then steer the rest of the discussion towards addressing each
remaining agenda item.
“I’m really confident that this time we have this thing all
worked out. After this meeting, all future manager’s meetings will run as
smooth as silk,” said Snidely.
