You want me to do what??

Getting more responsibilities because I was working with Keith had its advantages and disadvantages.  I was able to work on special projects, but with those assignments came all types of issues, including resentment. 

One morning, Keith called me into his office at about 12:45 pm.  He was tying his shoes while he was talking to me.  “I have a meeting at  today on the 12^th floor, that I want you to attend.  I forgot to add you to meeting invite. ” He said.  I said OK and went back to my desk to collect my notebook.  I assumed that I would be taking notes.  When I got up to the 12^th floor, Keith said, “I have saved a seat for you next to me.”  I sat down and pulled out my notebook.  Keith welcomed everyone to the meeting and explained to us that the reason we were all asked to attend was that one of the managers, Ryan, had been working on his Master’s Thesis and he had determined that we could solve a lot of our Testing environment stability issues if we began to manage all changes in our test labs.  The first step was to limit the number of people who had access to the test labs infrastructure, which he had already done.  The infrastructure engineers had to get access from the Test lab engineers and the architect to make any changes to the Test environment.  The second phase was to set up a Daily Change Meeting.  The meeting would have a Chair and a co-Chair who would discuss what changes were going to be made, and sign off on them.  “Now”, he said, “I would like to introduce to you the Chair and Co-Chair, Ryan and Cara.”  I put my pen down.  What did I just hear?  I looked up, and looked at everyone who was in the room, and I realized that I was looking at all of the Project Directors and upper level on the contract.  I waved and put my head back down.  Next, Keith announced that starting the next day the meetings would be held everyday at 1 pm and all departments needed to have a representative present for the daily meeting.  Well, I thought OK, as the co-chair, I will keep the meeting minutes and run the meeting when Ryan isn't available, after all, it was his idea and his thesis, and so he must have a plan. 

We met for the first day and I found out that Ryan didn't have a plan.  We all met in the room and waited for Ryan to start the meeting, it never happened.  There was no agenda and Ryan didn't say anything. People began to ask who is running the meeting.  Also, they brought up suggestions of what they thought needed to occur in the meeting.  Since the other Test Lab managers were present, I suggested that they start running the meeting.  No one wanted to start it.  I thought, well, it was the first day, the next day will be better.  The next day was the same.  Later, I found out from the other staff that this meeting was going to end up like other projects Ryan had and fail.  Ryan had shown in the past that he was not capable of running a project.  Maybe it was ego, but I didn't want to be part of a public failure.  Maybe, Keith knew that I might make a difference.  I don't know.  I decided to take responsibility.  I went in  to work the following weekend and drafted a Change Management process and developed a strategy for the meeting.  Next, I started drafting an agenda, and the forms needed for the group. 

The meeting that following Monday started the same way they first two, Ryan went in the room and didn't say anything.  So, I handed out the agenda and started the meeting.  I thought that once I got things going, Ryan would take over after that.  6 months later, I was still running the meeting.  Ryan attended each meeting, but did nothing; he did not even take meeting minutes.  And, although I had a problem with running the meetings, he didn't.  He only began to have a problem when people started referring to the Change meeting as Cara’s meeting, and going to me first for authorizations for changes in the environment.  Then, it became a problem.  After about 7 months, Ryan started running his own meeting, and I finally became the Co-Chair.  Gradually, people began to go to him first instead of me. 

#ChangeManagement
#makeadifference