“I told them. I followed up with them. I reminded them. And they still didn’t do it,” Emily complained.
“So, these assignments, these delegations, where did the meetings take place?” I asked.
“What meetings?”
“The meetings, where you explained what you expected, you know, the parameters of the delegation?”
“Well, we didn’t have a meeting. I am really busy. I make these assignments on the fly, in the hallway, on the floor. I have a lot of things that I have to juggle,” Emily replied.
Emily was right. Even now, we were having this conversation in a large workspace next to some equipment that was making an awful racket.
“Emily, I know this is important to you and it is important to me, too. Is there a better place we can have this conversation? A place that is a little quieter?”
“Yeah, no one’s ever in the conference room. But I really don’t have time. Can’t we just talk about it here, now?”
“Emily, this is important. If it is important enough, we have to create the time and we have to create a proper place to talk about it. Meet me in the conference room tomorrow morning fifteen minutes before shift. We don’t need a lot of time, but we need the right kind of time.”