“A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind.”

I wish I could print the work calendar for myself today….there was not a single point where I had no meeting…:D…it started from 9 and ended at 5 p.m. All different meetings but it was simply traveling from one meeting room to another!

“A meeting is an event where minutes are taken and hours wasted.” ~ James T. Kirk

I felt like writing about this journey to rooms …until my last meeting which in my life-time I have never experienced.

“There are two ways of meeting difficulties: You alter the difficulties or you alter yourself to meet them.” ~ Phyllis Bottome

Basically, I was invited into this meeting due to some change happening in some crap system and someone said it might have impact on to our system ;)...well its always good to make sure from the RACI point of view but then I think one should know what changes are going to happen and what they may think will impact others.

“Technological change is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.” ~ Albert Einstein
Anyway, we all came into the room. The PM is a person who is always in a fast forward mind and she doesn’t remember what ever is said in the meeting the moment she comes out of it..boy I wonder the poor analysts and the developers and probably the business who might have to remind her what she said or probably have to prove that –that’s not there action item :D

“Life is rather like a tin of sardines - we're all of us looking for the key.” ~ Allan Bennett

Quickly this PM - she discussed what’s going to happen in there system and then the impact when we analyzed we weren’t worried if it’s not going to impact the clients. Any internal code change we weren’t interested as we knew it’s not going to impact our being online.

“They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”

The moment we – as in business and myself we clarified, this PM said ok fine no impact this meeting is adjourned…! And all of a sudden from RM someone entered last minute and the whole scene now turned topsy- turvy !!! All of a sudden there are so many changes and we have to map the codes with our system and blah blah!

“There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” ~ Anais Nin

The RM had language issue hence I was trying to understand from our end what changes we need to make and when I asked the question, the RM lady tried to draw on the board and all of a sudden the PM winks at me and says – you are not going to understand anyway what she (RM) is saying and so don’t waste time and she tells RM – please don’t draw anything it’s a waste of time …hahah gosh I have never seen like that so upfront and on the face…:O boy!!!!!

“Our Age of Anxiety is, in great part, the result of trying to do today's jobs with yesterday's tools.”
Then I took the control saying I need to verify certain things for which the action item was from there end and hence we adjourned the meeting saying complete the action item and then we will verify from our end. From my side everyone agreed and even business was quite supportive.
The moment we stepped out of the room the PM calls me and says so it’s your action item to figure out and I said- NOPE!!!!

“There comes that mysterious meeting in life when someone acknowledges who we are and what we can be, igniting the circuits of our highest potential.” ~ Rusty Berkus

Thank god, the analyst from there end was quite honest who said its her action item: D…but the hilarious part was the way the meeting was organized and conducted…at least for my team, App support, Business they all felt they were stressed out from that meeting as the ladies were chatting all over the place…and no one had a clue who’s saying what!!!!

“Chaos is a name for any order that produces confusion in our minds.” ~ George Santayana

Boy I pity those people who work with them…there might be hardly any time when the requirements must be getting signed off in couple of meetings :D….this was a new experience for me in my project management life – I found it very unique and hence wanted to add a page on my blog ;)

“Pity is for the living, envy is for the dead” ~ Mark Twain

Do share if you also had any such instances…!

“Meeting people unlike oneself does not enlarge one's outlook; it only confirms one's idea that one is unique” ~ Elizabeth Bowen