What do mayors, trapeze artists and board chairs have in common? An article in the Seattle Times about the aerial troupe Cabiri, rehearsing for their Halloween show, suggests the answer.
Personally I’ve never been tempted to try out a trapeze, but a feature about Cabiri caught my eye the other day. This is a troupe of dancers, athletes and gymnasts who bring myths from around the world to life. They practice in the Georgetown area of Seattle, and rehearsals are videotaped. Not only are the sessions videotaped, all the members of the troupe review the tapes and offer tips on what works, and what needs more practice.
Like these folks, mayors and board chairs are, in one sense, performers. They engage in activities in front of others which require the use of the whole person, and in which mistakes are inevitable. Unfortunately in the world of meetings, we don’t have the friendly custom of reviewing tapes of performances and offering “constructive criticism.” I suppose it’s because meetings are so ubiquitous that they seem easy. But they’re not.
Anybody who gets elected mayor of a city or chair of a board is going to make mistakes while running the meetings, unless she has had a most unusual background of training and experience. So why not ease up on ourselves, and accept that mistakes are inevitable? Getting feedback from councilmembers, board directors and meeting attendees might be a good way to improve fast.
It is certainly true for me that I’ve learned the most about good meeting process when I messed up. People who are willing to set aside what T.S. Eliot called “the endless struggle to think well of ourselves” and analyze their mistakes can make marked improvement. Hmmm, maybe that trapeze isn’t so alarming after all…
Ann G. Macfarlane, PRP
© Jurassic Parliament 2011. All rights reserved.
Comments
Post has no comments.