It’s been almost 3 weeks since I returned from my vacation and the 3 solid days of LMS work I had scheduled for myself still has not occurred. It’s amazing how many “this is number one” priorities come up in a single day. I came back to having to create org. charts, produce yet another paper version of curriculum, general document creation, meetings, budget concerns, binder stuffing, a/v equipment malfunctions, coordinating of orientation, and it goes on and on and on.
I am finally (I think) at almost a point where I can get back to “the number one priority” (for the moment) of going through the LMS step-by-step looking for bugs, issues, and general strangeness. However, there is another priority that I believe for a change may actually be something I should concentrate on first and stop looking at as an annoyance; My Performance Development Plan. Makes me shiver just to say the words.
I’ve never had to do one before…ever. However, my department is responsible for creating the document and is requiring the entire management team have them completed. So, as a FINE EXAMPLE, our department has been “strongly recommended” to complete ours as well. I am not a list person by any sense of the imagination and having to list out my priorities and objectives for the year is very painful. Listing further all the implementation steps is driving me to pull my hair out and my eyes to cross.
However…..
I now realize that my supervisors seem to have little understanding in how much is needed to be done to get the LMS working and continue to have it function. I’ve been working on it in bits and pieces now for such a long time that it seems to be one of those things that will never get done and therefore is moving lower on their priority list. This isn’t true of others in the organization that are asking me where it stands and will it be ready soon. Yes and no….depending on if I get to actually concentrate more then 10 minutes at a time on the tasks needed for it to succeed.
I’m beginning to understand myself that I need to make my Performance Plan my first priority. This is not only because I have a meeting about it next week, but also because it will allow me to show clearly everything that I have done up until this point. More importantly it will help me to demonstrate all the tasks that will be needed to get the system functioning. I’m expecting that once they see how much is truly involved they will perhaps back off the “this is number one priority now” mentality and maybe even help me to protect my time from others in the organization as well.
I’ll certainly post the results of my plan and meeting after they occur next week and hope that they are greatly positive.