The 6 Types of Working Genius by Patrick M. Lencioni

Author:Patrick M. Lencioni
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781637743300
Publisher: BenBella Books
Published: 2022-06-25T00:00:00+00:00

COMMITTEE

True to Anna’s promise, when I arrived twelve minutes later, I was not the only one going into the conference room at St. Matthew’s parish.

There were seven people there, including me and Father John, the pastor, who was just a few years older than me.

“Let’s get started, everyone,” the pastor announced. “I’d like to get you out of here at a decent hour.”

Everyone sat down, and Fr. John led us in prayer.

Then an older guy, whom I didn’t know but recognized from Mass, went to the front of the room and began.

“Thank you all for coming tonight. I’m Finn Collins, and I’ve been running the International Festival for the past seven years, since Bob and Peggy Carlson retired. As you may know, we’ve had fewer and fewer people attend the festival for the past couple of years, and we actually lost money on the event last year. So, I’m hoping that we can bounce back this fall and even make something of a profit.”

I interrupted. “Excuse me, Finn, but hope is not a strategy.”

Now, I didn’t actually say that, as tame as it may sound. At parish meetings, I learned the hard way that people were often offended by direct language and blunt observations. Besides, that would have been obnoxious. So, I said nothing.

Finn continued. “Okay, let’s divide up responsibilities so that we can start making progress. We have three months exactly until the day of the festival, and if I’ve learned anything over the past seven years, we’re going to need all that time to get ready.”

Finn started handing out papers of some kind that I assumed had something to do with the different roles that we would be signing up to do. And then I heard a gentle voice behind me ask a wonderful question.

“Can we talk about the purpose of the International Festival?”

Along with three other guys in my row, I turned to see a shortish woman sitting in the back of the room. Somehow, I hadn’t noticed her, or the sleeping toddler in her arms, when I arrived.

Finn looked confused. “Well . . .” He looked at Fr. John. “The International Festival is one of the parish activities we have every year.”

I thought he was going to keep explaining, and I think others did, too, because we were all quietly waiting, but the man just stopped right there.

The woman with the toddler tried again. “Yes, I know. But why do we do it every year?” She didn’t wait for a response. “Is it worth all the planning and preparation? Could it be different, or better?”

The room was silent. Finn looked at Fr. John, who looked at someone else in the front row. As fair and relatively innocuous as her comment was, there was a palpable sense of tension in the room. You’d have thought good ol’ Finn had ripped a fart.

And that’s when I decided that I should jump in, for real this time. “I think that’s a fair question. It’s always a good idea to review things from time to time to make sure they’re still relevant.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.