“Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything.” John Kenneth Galbraith

Meetings. The bane of all organizational existence. I’m not just saying that; it’s scientifically proven. Researchers from UCLA and the University of Minnesota found that executives spend between 40 and 50 percent of their work time in meetings, and that as much as 50 percent is wasted time. Here’s another way to look at it: a University of Arizona study found there are more than 11 million formal meetings per day in the US (but Canada can hold its own, thanks). The cost of this to a Fortune 500 company is more than $75 million a year.

Bill Ford, Jr., says that by 2025 cars will be autonomous; they’ll be able to communicate with each other, use the road most efficiently, warn drivers of obstructions, and even valet park for you. In slow traffic, you could disengage your body as well as your brain and let the car take over. Autopilot is a great feature – on a car. It’s not so wonderful in your project team. It takes over when people are disengaged; they are in a never-ending traffic jam at work. No exciting corners, no high-speed chases, no scenic detours. The Centre of Excellence (COE) approach focuses on putting team members back behind the wheel.

As a project recovery consultant, when I go into a new corporate culture, it is like a city dweller being dropped into the middle of the wilderness, or someone from Arizona walking into a NWT winter storm. The same rules that will keep you alive in a survival situation apply: be prepared, evaluate the situation, use your senses, adapt and improvise, and by all means, stay hydrated. Coffee, tea, whatever it takes. The difference is that my goal is not survival, but rather to ensure that I respect and work within the existing corporate culture in order to do my job and provide value to the corporation.

Community organizer and writer Saul Alinsky wrote, “Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict.” You’re not living in an abstract world, and you’re definitely not living in a frictionless one. Change is constant; managing that change is a little more inconsistent. Whether an organization is implementing new processes or integrating updated systems, managing change is the crucial factor in success.

“You push the button, we do the rest.” Kodak founder George Eastman’s vision was to put a camera in everyone’s hands. The inexpensive Brownie was the first camera that the public could afford, and they used it to capture all those “Kodak moments.” This is a company that did not lack ambition; they had the best minds in the world, they had innovative technology and patents.