Wednesday, April 22, 2009

What if they set up a working group and nobody came?

To Cowley Street yesterday evening for the inaugural meeting of the Candidate Training and Development working party, set up by the English Candidates Committee. I have to admit to having some doubts about where we will be going with this, especially given the expectations that both the new Capability Board and the proposed Leadership Academy will have some interest in the subject matter. However, my doubts were replaced by a grim depression when I saw the agenda, in particular;

4. Terms of reference/project charter for the working group - discussion

Words designed to chill the marrow, methinks.

As a civil servant, I'm well aware of the culture of meetings about meetings. Luckily, I don't get sucked into that too much, being a comparatively small furry mammal in a world of big but inflexible scaly reptiles, but I know the signs when I see them. The first Valladares rule of meetings is;

"Always decide what a meeting is intended to achieve before you call it."

and I suspect that such an agenda item fails that test.

However, I did persuade my colleagues that, before we dive headlong into a contest to invent the same things before anyone else does, that we should actually find out what else is going on.

More news when I have it...

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