I always heard golf was a good game to learn if you want to schmooze people in business, or just generally have something to talk about and connect with. Well, I sucked at golf back when I tried it.
But there is always cfb. This morning I had my first face-to-face meeting with a dept. chair who I'd noticed went to school at Michigan State. So as I walked into the conference room to meet him I decided to break the ice by telling him I saw he was an MSU alum and said I was curious if he had any interest in college football and if he ever went to any games while he was there. His face lit up and he told me yes, he often went to games while he was a student and eventually was a season ticket holder for a time.
So we spent the first 10 minutes or so shooting the breeze about Kirk Cousins and Javon Ringer, a couple others. Now, my Spartan knowledge runs pretty shallow, but that was ok, he did most of the talking. He was into basketball and hockey too, and I was really out of my depth there, but again, he was happy to talk. He was surprised I paid any attention at all and asked if I had any specific instance that stuck out for some reason. I told him I was kind of a general cfb fan, but that I got a lot of laughs years ago when Mike Hart called them Little Brother and then UM proceeded to lose something like 6 out of the next 7 games. He chuckled and thought that was funny I would remember that.
I think it knocked some of the formality off of his demeanor, which I think tends to be good for meetings like that one. In settings where we're still trying to define all the goals and I'm trying to show them what's possible and they're trying to tell me precisely what they need, the more people can talk freely and openly, the more ground we tend to be able to cover, as opposed to if they stay formal and don't want to push back, or don't feel comfortable saying exactly what they're thinking.
Moral of the story: I can't golf worth a crap, but maybe all those Saturdays wasted in front of the tube weren't wasted after all.
