My Week in Workshop

One of the cool things about being a Management Officer here in Johannesburg is that we get a lot of visitors.  We are also a training hub for the Department of State, so we're very busy usually.  Last week, as some of you may know, Consulate General Johannesburg had the opportunity to host the Africa Bureau's Management Officers Workshop.  That meant that every Management officer from every Embassy in Africa (minus the Arabic ones up north, different bureau) came to Johannesburg.  Even some USAID people came too.  Talk about pressure.  I mean, you screw up and everyone is thinking: "Well that's not the way I would have done it at my post.  How did he end up here while I'm in Bujumbura?"  To add a little more to the mix, most of the high ranking Management officers from the Department were here too.  Nothing like a little pressure to help my sleep habits.  (Or lack of, as I kept waking up every 3 hours due to hyperactivity.)

Well, I was a walking ball of anxiety the entire week.  My boss kept saying that it would be ok, and that any workshop is a success when all participants leave upright and above room temperature.  I agreed, but secretly I was afraid I'd screw this up somehow.  I mean, I'm the guy that lost an Ambassador in the halls at Main State!  And with every Management officer in town, the microscope I was under was large enough to be seen in DC.  Also, the highest ranking Management Officer in the Department was coming.  Now imagine you're working at a plant for a decent sized Multi-national.  Now imagine during a training session, the COO comes in.  He knows you, calls you by name, and talks about how excited he is to see what you've got planned for him.  Yeah, that was exactly what happened with me.  The guy that everyone in the Department knows, who can recall minor details about a post from memory, and can discuss, without notes, Afghanistan reconstruction, knew my name and where we'd met.  Sweat?  Meet flop.  Add in that I still had work to do via blackberry back at the Consulate, and I was stretched.

The workshop went off better than I expected.  With the exception of the teleconference with DC not working (and no one blamed us for that because, come on, it's Africa) we got rave reviews.  My staff is awesome, and deserve all of the praise.  Me?  I was just happy not to have choked on my own tongue.  As I sat there in the ballroom of the hotel after the workshop, and people kept coming to me and telling me how well everything went, and how good the Consulate looked when they came to visit, I couldn't help but be proud of myself.  It's nice to get a few plaudits now and then, right?  At least I can feel good about myself for a bit while I get around to answering the 1075 emails waiting on me in my inbox.