Owning the Agenda

I wrote the agenda for this trip to Germany. I am also taking the notes, and writing the action items. Not long ago I detested being the secretary, the one who spent all the time writing it down. I just wanted to talk through the issues and not have to document it all myself. However, I have learned as I have gotten older, if I don't write it down, and no one else writes it down, it might as well have never happened.

In a way, the one who documents it drives the conversation, and owns the results. That's the selfish way of looking at it. The altruistic way of looking at it is that most people don't want to do the writing, and volunteering to write is saying that I care about the results, and I will do the extra hours of work to make that happen. I suppose both can be true.

A big issue in the corporate world is to develop ownership in employees, because ownership typically equals alignment. When a person buys into the philosophy, he or she works to achieve the end goal.