Dan was over it.
It had only been thirty-six hours since receiving legal correspondence that brought his world crashing down. At least crashing down internally.
Now he was trapped in a job he didn’t enjoy. About to participate in the first court case of his life, he was still functioning, but so much of his life felt like slow motion.
Dan even knew a lawyer from earlier days and was ready to make the phone call. But somehow there was always a new issue cropping up.
Take the Next Level project. It was supposed to be a little side-venture consisting of a few meetings and a presentation. Everything was going along nicely until the team discovered they actually cared about the outcome.
And Dan was the catalyst.
So now Mia, Communications Director, had arranged for Dan...Dan!...to present his personal views to the founder of the organisation.
Dan sat at his kitchen table...7:06pm...8:53pm...11:16pm. Frustrated by every passing minute yet poring over every word as he prepared his presentation. And finally sleep...perhaps to dream of the day he calls his lawyer.
...
‘Morning Dan,’ said George casually. ‘How are the kids?’
‘Yeah, they’re great’, Dan responded with a smile.
George didn’t acknowledge the reply, but continued, ‘Omar was here for a meeting this morning and asked if he could sit in.’
‘Err, sure’, responded Dan, shaking Omar’s extended hand.
Great! thought Dan sarcastically, a board member as well as George. And the board member who owns a marketing company at that.
They all sat, a little isolated as they were – gathered at the end of the boardroom table. George handed straight over, ‘Mia is very excited about what you have for us Dan...so fire away’.
As they sometimes are, the next twenty minutes were a blur to Dan. Before he knew it, he was walking back to his desk. He was sure that he was deflating like an enormous hot air balloon as the adrenalin wore off.
Collapsing into his chair (but not too aggressively), he reviewed the presentation in his mind.
George had smiled a lot, but it was his ironic smile. Omar didn’t smile much but then, he rarely did.
And what had George said about the challenge? ‘I like your examples, but I think the challenge will be in integrating it with the SDP.‘ Nobody else called the Statement of Defining Purpose “The SDP”, although nobody talked about it much at all. ‘The SDP process was very comprehensive, very rigorous and very productive,’ he’d added.
I guess you didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to read between the lines of that comment.
And Omar? thought Dan, at least he stood to thank me, with a firm handshake. And he looked me in the eye as he said, ‘I really appreciate your passion.’
Still no smile though.
Dan finished the comment in his head, I really appreciate your passion...but you have no idea about our purpose or how to communicate it.
The thing with the SDP was that it wasn’t inspiring. Maybe it was just Dan, but by the time input was received from every member of the organisation, and thirty-five external parties, the result was…well…uninspiring. But apparently everybody voted for it.
Dan was pretty sure that a Statement of Defining Purpose with nine strategic directions suggests a lack of definition. If clarity of purpose was a bright colour, the democratic process had bleached it all out.
Dan sat in deflated melancholy for a few moments longer. Checking his calendar, he was reminded that the annual ESO Conference was the next week. Well, at least that’s something to look forward to, he thought to himself. And then shaking his head, not that I have time for it.
And while Dan might have shaken his head for a few moments looking forward to the conference, he was going to be shaking his head for years looking back on it.
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