We'll Meet Again (Alas)
It was a day of back-to-back meetings today. I tend not to write too much about meetings in this diary on the assumption that you'll find descriptions of meetings about as interesting as me telling you about my dreams. Funnily enough I sometimes have my best dreams during meetings, but I'm usually nudged awake by a colleague just as Nicole Kidman is telling me that she could really do with someone with my kind of radio experience to give her one-to-one voice coaching in Hollywood.
Sorry, where was I? Oh...meetings. Yes I probably spend the majority of my working day in some sort of meeting. Today, for example, we kicked off with an inter-departmental meeting about . It was mostly information-sharing as producers from Gaelic, Television and the Orchestra talked about plans to cover next year's festival of Highland culture. I had to leave before we agreed action points because I had another meeting to attend. This time I was in the main TV studio where producers from the independent production sector had been invited to hear about ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland's plans for the future. After lunch I chaired my own meeting. This was our fortnightly Creative Management meeting where representatives from different radio departments gather to brainstorm programme ideas. Today we were discussing a big outside broadcast in Edinburgh later in the year and suggesting ways that families could come along and have some fun at the event. I suggested handing out ´óÏó´«Ã½ branded kazoos. I then nudged the person sitting next to me who awoke with a start.
Last meeting of the day was with other senior managers as we were brought up to speed on developments at our new H.Q. being built at Pacific Quay in Glasgow. This was the toughest meeting of the day with lots of horse-trading about competing plans. Tough, maybe, but probably one of the most productive meetings in that things were decided and action agreed.
There are various theories on how to run a good meeting. I know some organisations have meeting rooms without chairs so that managers are encouraged to get to the point. That might work, but can you imagine how many people would be off work with bad backs?
The worst meetings are those that involve very long Powerpoint presentations. I sat through one of these a few years ago. The person giving the presentation spent fifteen minutes on the first slide. My eyes drifted to the corner of the screen and I discovered, to my horror, that this was the first slide of sixty! Outside the window I watched the seasons change and by the time I got home, my wife had remarried and sold the house. Well, almost.
Anyway, I do have a very important meeting at nine o'clock tomorrow morning so I must get some sleep now. I wonder if Nicole still needs my help. Must remember to put my passport in the pocket of my jim-jams.
