Too close for comfort

I had training sessions on Sunday and Monday... easy enough as they were repeats.  I was set to deliver a new one today.  I can remember writing a couple of months back that I liked having the freedom to cover what I wanted.  That freedom has come to scare the hell out of me.

The guy who initially proposed this series gave each session vague titles.  Today's topic:  "Making Organizational Impact."  Please.

Thanks to teaching at Hamilton/Kaplan I have taught over 20 different courses so I have done prep for a pretty wide range of topics.  The people I'm seeing today have been in 16 hours of classes with me.  There should be plenty of material left for me to cover, right?  Sadly, no.  Many of those in my sessions are people who run the dorms, manage the IT crew, work in HR, etc.  Discussing globalization, currency exchange, operations management, management policy and strategy, etc., would be absolutely meaningless to them.

I struggled to find a topic.  I assumed I'd find material to cover.  By 7PM last night I had nothing.  I was frantically pulling up every course I taught.  Surely there must be something from the HR classes I've taught!  Not really.  Why?  I've learned a lot about how messed up this place is over the past couple of sessions.  Talking more about how HR is supposed to work in theory would not go over well.

By 9PM I was in a full blown panic.  I've never stood in front of group and said, "Yeah, I got nothing."  I found a group exercise that might take an hour.  I found another... there was no coherent theme to anything I was finding...

I began cursing my decision to do this.  I have loved the information I've learned from them and I certainly love the extra income.  (Assuming I ever get paid.)  But, oh my god, I am standing in front of this group 10 hours!

I took a full ambien and went to bed.  I set the alarm for 4AM.  I woke up before the alarm and I thought of a way to put it all together.  I went to work on my computer and by 6:30 I was ready.

The group I had today is my fantastic group of extroverts.  I could have come and said, "Let's discuss your favorite cookie recipe" and we'd have talked for four hours.  I ended up using only about half of what I had prepared.  Wow.

I dodged a bullet.  Or pulled one out of my ass.  Either metaphor works.