Change happens in the room

I got into a pretty heated debate this week with Drew and Kyle.  They contend that, in order to improve efficiency, its better not to attend meetings unless absolutely necessary.  They say there are too many unnecessary meetings and that no one listens to them anyway so they are just going to cut them out altogether.  They'd rather be in their office working on things they can control.  

I couldn't disagree more.  Are there unnecessary meetings?  Yes.  Welcome to the world of rule by committee that is higher education.  But I'd rather be in the room at those seemingly unnecessary meetings than sitting back in my office flitting around.  Why?  

1. Brainstorming: How many times have you been in a meeting that has gone completely off-topic with an unplanned brainstorming session?  What if you aren't there to participate?  Then the web component gets completely lost in the conversation and people end up making decisions about strategy without any consultation whatsoever.  In the long run, missing meetings where this happens will actually cost you time, as you struggle to bring the web into alignment with everything else that was decided.  So much for efficiency!  


2. Big Picture: Cross-medium integration will NEVER happen if you excuse yourself from meetings about marketing strategies on mediums that aren't the web.  How was I able to integrate all of our latest challenge materials? Because I attend print communications meetings every monday morning.  At most of those meetings, I don't say more than two words.  I'm there to hear everything else that's going on.  As I've previously blogged, it's your job to be in the know. 


3. Out of sight, out of mind: Culture change takes a long time at any organization.  Want the web to be viewed as important?  Than it has to be visible.  And yes, people are going to laugh at you and not take you seriously but if you back down and lock yourself in your office, you've let them win.  

Still want to work on your efficiency?  Fine.  Bring your laptop with you to meetings.  If they are talking about something that doesn't apply to you, do other work.  I do it all the time.  But always keep one ear open.  So what's the worst that could happen?  You've done work, but at a different location than your office.  People may give you the evil eye for having a laptop at first, but if you're consistent about it they get over it and it becomes expected.  Besides, brining your laptop is really great if you need to show someone an example of a web page in order to make your point. 

Kyle says I sound self-righteous with this story, but I'm going to tell it anyway: When I first brought up the idea of using AIM for prospective students to my former bosses in 2003, I was literally laughed out of the room. How could I possibly know what I was talking about?  They knew better and they knew the phone was the only way to communicate.  But you guys know me - I like to run my mouth and I continued to do so for the next few years until they finally "got it" and put me in charge of one of the first full blown e-recruiting programs in the country.  Five years later, they'll deny it up and down if you ask them about it ("we were ALWAYS going to make this change....ALWAYS knew it was the right thing to do") but the only reason that change happened was because I was IN THE ROOM pushing the web.  If I had excused myself from those meetings because they weren't important, I'd still be a counselor.   

I'm not the only one that can tell a story like that. A few years before I got to the development office here, the general consensus among all involved was that the web wasn't going to raise a dime.  This year, the web systems set up before I got here processed in excess of $6 million. I'm sure that progress wasn't made by people who sat in their office and refused to attend seemingly unnecessary meetings.  

A lot of us talk about wanting to effect change in our organization but few of us will actually step up and put the work in to get it done.  Change doesn't come easily and it doesn't happen overnight.  Hell, even if it does come, you may not even get credit for being the catalyst!  But if you really want it, then do what it takes to get it done.