the opening dance
Today I spent NINE HOURS in meetings; part of the “kick-off” dog-and-pony show for my workplace’s latest software project iteration. Not that it was particularly different than the last half-dozen “kick-offs” I’ve attended since becoming Information Systems Analyst Guy™; same people, same basic slide shows, same monotone delivery.
Ideally, these things are designed to build up excitement and enthusiasm for the latest project, and to provide useful information for attendees, which often include important VIPs who travel in specifically for the event. However, I’ve found that in practice, while they do include some amount of useful information, these events are mostly depressing, soul-sucking affairs that, at least temporarily, drain the attendees’ life force, but do manage, through a deluge of extraneous information and innumerable PowerPoint slides, to overwhelm said VIPs to the extent that they back off for the rest of the project, and don’t interfere with the work to be done.
I wonder if that isn’t the whole idea anyway?
Maybe, maybe not. I don’t really want to think about it right now; my beer is getting warm.
