Letting go...
Today I'm having a problem letting go of some of my past. Nothing tawdry or scandalous, just a portion of my professional life that was very important to me but didn't work out the way I planned. It's complicated, but maybe just the act of jotting it down will help me release it. Here goes...
In 1999 I began a crusade (of sorts) to bring the web technical people of my organization together through an annual face to face workshop. IT started small, but soon drew the interest of our larger parent organization and sister components. It grew and grew and became quite a large event - as our organization technical events go, and very sought after by staff from around the country. As the coordinator, I worked with other parts of the organization and outside organizations to make it an interesting, compelling, and organizationally important experience for all attendees.
In 2004, the conference hit a new high with full participation from all organization entities, pre/post-conference training events, and satellite meetings, including an important leadership council. In 2005 we were asked to up the ante and provide working sessions to solve some of the organization's problems from the ground up. That year was our peak (although we didn't know it at the time) with interest from very upper management to act on specific issues and bring some of the solutions to fruition. From these two conferences came a mandate to form a special committee to lead the change - I was aksed to chair the committee and provide overall leadership - albeit from my current position in the organization, not as a promotion or special appointment. I took it and ran with it - trying my best to be a leader without authority, without staff who reported to me. I did have a committee of passionate people, that like me wanted to make a difference and bring positive change to the organization and how we did business on the web.
We worked like crazy identifying issues, creating project plans, writing policy, drafting proposals, and briefing councils and other leadership on our activities and recommendations. The bottom line was there was will, but no money - so we learned about the budget system and work hard (again) to get funding identified for out years. We recommended plans to establish a dedicated group of people to do the job that the committee was trying to accomplish ad hoc.
We were making progress, people were listening, plans were being made. And then the bottom fell out... to be continued.
Today I'm having a problem letting go of some of my past. Nothing tawdry or scandalous, just a portion of my professional life that was very important to me but didn't work out the way I planned. It's complicated, but maybe just the act of jotting it down will help me release it. Here goes...
In 1999 I began a crusade (of sorts) to bring the web technical people of my organization together through an annual face to face workshop. IT started small, but soon drew the interest of our larger parent organization and sister components. It grew and grew and became quite a large event - as our organization technical events go, and very sought after by staff from around the country. As the coordinator, I worked with other parts of the organization and outside organizations to make it an interesting, compelling, and organizationally important experience for all attendees.
In 2004, the conference hit a new high with full participation from all organization entities, pre/post-conference training events, and satellite meetings, including an important leadership council. In 2005 we were asked to up the ante and provide working sessions to solve some of the organization's problems from the ground up. That year was our peak (although we didn't know it at the time) with interest from very upper management to act on specific issues and bring some of the solutions to fruition. From these two conferences came a mandate to form a special committee to lead the change - I was aksed to chair the committee and provide overall leadership - albeit from my current position in the organization, not as a promotion or special appointment. I took it and ran with it - trying my best to be a leader without authority, without staff who reported to me. I did have a committee of passionate people, that like me wanted to make a difference and bring positive change to the organization and how we did business on the web.
We worked like crazy identifying issues, creating project plans, writing policy, drafting proposals, and briefing councils and other leadership on our activities and recommendations. The bottom line was there was will, but no money - so we learned about the budget system and work hard (again) to get funding identified for out years. We recommended plans to establish a dedicated group of people to do the job that the committee was trying to accomplish ad hoc.
We were making progress, people were listening, plans were being made. And then the bottom fell out... to be continued.
posted by Allisoussi | 6:39 AM
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