Brownies are NOT Cupcakes
Tuesday I went on my first collegiate visit. It didn’t go quiet like how I planned, but things never seem to go as I expect (side note: must expect to expect the unexpected).
Essentially, there was a miscommunication in the intention of the meeting. Here is how my boss Leigh explained it how miscommunications happen, you go into a bake shop wanting to trade a cupcake for a cupcake, but the shop only trades brownies. You’re not going to trade your cupcake for a brownie and the brownie guy isn’t willing to trade his brownie for your cupcake. Both might be sweet and delicious, but it’s not what you want. That’s when you say, “oh, can you tell me who the person is that trades cupcakes?”
I went into that meeting expecting to trade cupcakes for cupcakes and ended up with brownies.
Miscommunication happens, you learn from it; here’s what I learned from it:
– In the initial communication (e-mail, phone, in-person, etc.) be explicitly clean are about the intention of the meeting. “I want to tell you about “xyz” and what I have going on there and how I would work with you to get information that is potentially beneficial to your audience?”
– Sometimes you have to snoop around after your meeting to find more pertinent information. So don your goggles and scarf and become the Flying Ace.
– The importance of keeping to the details of the meeting. Stick to the purpose and time of the meeting.
I still have several questions, like what to do when a meeting goes severely off-track?
What do you suggest? Have you ever had a meeting that didn’t go as planned? What was it, how did you get it back on track, and what did you learn to apply to your next meeting that was similar?
Interning While Doing Practicum Might Be a Little Backwards 