Staying Connected

I hosted Team Space this morning, which was followed immediately by the Deanery Leadership Team - four hours of solid networking, updating, linking and communictating - after lunch it's off to see the Anne at Christ the Sower for more of the same. I have a pile of emails to write, which are all about passing information, making sure people are in the loop and that they have been consulted... and a pile of further similar tasks to do by voice or in person... Unfortunaetly I couldn't be at Ministers West who were supposed to be thinking about joint mission, because it clashed with the DLT...

It does remind me of the old quote the networking is "not working" and there is some truth in that. You can spend all your time meeting new people and extending your contacts, but, there is also an important truth that friendship is dependent on the time you put into it. Even if we don't spend time building new realtionships, we need to maintain and develop the relationships we already have. In other words, networking is never "not working" if it is the glue that enables life to happen...

There are too many stories of people who had great ideas, and then forgot to tell anyone about them; people who had big plans and wondered why no-one was interested. Ultimatley nothing is possible without relationships, information and a common understanding. Get these things right and there is a great deal you can do. Ignore them and your plans will fail... As Growing Leaders puts it: comunicate as much as you can, as soon as you can, as often as you can, with as many people as you can...

I'm writing this in a five minute gap while I prepare for my next networking session. Looking forward to some time later on tonight when I don't need to communicate...

Spent most of the evening looking after the girls. Went to bed early - 9:30ish - and went straight to sleep. Isla woke me up because she couldn't sleep, so I got up to do some writing for tomorrow's deadlines. Good job I did, beacause I have no time for desk work tomorrow... Finished work at midnight. 900 words to go. Will have to squeeze them in between meetings...

Feeling generally tired, a bit hazy and achy. Probably a bit grumpy... Must concentrate and work hard and try not to miss anything really important...