Meetings – Is there always need to speak?

After nearly a year into my role as the middle manager, I have had tried to learn as much as possible about the programs and committee I have been tasked with. As a way of growing in knowledge, I attend meetings (Zonial ICT PLC meeting with mentors, IP ICT PLC meeting, presentations from other schools), purposefully asked to attend workshops (pedagogy workshops) and seminars (Math Teacher seminar)which is within my area of responsibility. I will also be asking to attend the meeting of committe(like the N2 Cluster ICT Meeting with HOD/SH)in a later date.

During some of these meetings, I told myself that my goal is not to make any presentation or even answer questions. Though at times, I felt that this a bit difficult especially for meetings where everyone is expected to respond. I wanted to simply listen to the discussions as they unfold. I wanted to just sit quietly and attend to others as they talk. In this way, I hope to get more accurate informations from experts and so be able to make informmed decisions. I also hope to gain a better insight into the issues that different people are grappling right then – and more importantly I hope to learn more about how they address the issues. Many of these issues I believe are applicable to me as well and will definitely help to accelerate my learning curve than reading through volumes of minutes or books. This is the approach I take so as to help me as what Michael Fullen puts it “…to better sort out difficult problems even when I do not know in advance how I am going to do it.”