Time Travel

I’m sending this one on ahead to myself (and any of you who are still reading this space), since I don’t think it would be either fair or safe to publish this post while still employed on this job. So for those of you reading along (including me), welcome back to the second week of June, 2008, and the truly bizarre place known as UCLA Extension, or UNEX…

Several weeks ago our Director scheduled a “retreat” for the Senior Staff members, to discuss ideas for a possible reorganization of the department. With our fiscal year ending, and funds being short, the Director decided to hold the retreat on Monday, June 9, 2008 at the Faculty Club facility on UCLA’s campus (that’s yesterday, from the point of view of when this post was being written). Given the number (and nature) of miss-steps that subsequently occurred, I thought this might be a good time to consider management retreats in general, and some of the things to avoid doing on one in particular…

To begin with, the whole project ran afoul of UNEX rules against spending money on food or entertainment for employees. Technically, even though Extension does not receive any taxpayer money, the funds we do get (from fees and tuitions) are still State money, and can’t be spent on these categories. Undaunted, the Senior Staff made plans to “retreat” to the conference room across the hall. The problem here is that getting off-site – or at least getting out of your regular working space – is critical for this sort of conceptual meeting to work in the first place. Otherwise, not only do you lose the sense of occasion (and importance) obtained by being Outside, but you’re much too likely to have people excuse themselves and go work on their usual assignments – which is in fact what happened…

Then there’s the lack of structure and the overabundance of agendas – which I regret to say are quite typical of this type of retreat. Every member of the management team is going to be threatened by different aspects of a reorganization, and each member of the team will have his or her own ideas about what changes should be made. In the case of our department, the Program Directors have been running their own areas of operation as little independent departments for years, and will resist any chance to centralize control or work more collaboratively, while the Program Managers have been used primarily as Administrative Analysts (not managers at all) during this period, and would like to actually have some hand in running things. If the Department’s Director doesn’t set the agenda and take a firm hand in running the discussion, the results will be anarchy – and the complete waste of a work day – before people decide the whole thing is rubbish, tune out, and the excuse themselves to return to work…

Which is, in fact, what appears to have happened…

Compounding matters, at least as far as I’m concerned, is the fact that I wasn’t invited to this “retreat” myself. Now I know some of you are thinking that since I’m leaving this job in three weeks, getting my opinion on the future direction of the department is not important. That’s almost certainly what my boss was thinking when he told me not to attend. But in this case, he was wrong (and so was anyone out there who agreed with him) for two reasons: First, because I am the only member of this department (however ephemeral) with a management degree, and the only one experience in leading this sort of reorganization event; and second, because with me absent and the third Program Manager position currently vacant, that left only one manager to represent the interests of a good 40% of the management team. The manager in question is a good man, and I’m sure he put on a really good show, but there’s no denying the fact that he was outnumbered five to one…

I could go on, but I think you get the point. The whole exercise was a huge waste of time and resources (although fortunately not taxpayer money), and will have to be repeated any number of times before any substantive change happens – if, in fact, any ever does. All things considered, I’d rather be in Winslow…