Offsite

Today, instead of heading into the office, I joined my department at a local hotel where we held a "strategy offsite." Unlike at my last company, where the department was comprised of nearly 100 people and department gatherings took the form of a several-day conference, our offsite was attended by five people and we moved through topics rather quickly.

I'm getting used to my new position and learning that our little team must act quickly in order to capitalize on momentum and excitement around our work. But because of that, our "strategy" sessions really focused on tactical issues - not quite the blue sky visioning I expected.

But like other offsite meetings I've attended, we had lovely catered food, and we took a break to enjoy a wonderful luncheon. Despite being full from the morning's breakfast (this panda can't resist a good bagel when there's a platter of lox available!), I opted for the shrimp and asparagus risotto, sending me into a deep food coma for the afternoon session. Not such a smart move, because I definitely felt myself nodding off during some of the discussion. And that's a particularly bad move when you make up 20 percent of the attendees.