power play

Today's conference call meeting was such an eye-opener! It's rather interesting in a sense to watch the power play that occurs when the big fish go at it. (Note: I was the only graduate student meekly observing the organized chaos stirred by 9 of the most experienced researchers/grant writers this side of the wheat fields.)

I think I actually learned a lot during the meeting, especially about how to diplomatically get your point across eventhough some of the people you are talking to appear a)pathetically clueless, b)condescendingly bullish, c)annoyingly arrogant, or d)all of the above (the most unfortunate case of all!). Then again, I do admire the grace under pressure of some of the participants. Even though the others were being impossible, they responded with such a calm demeanor that they actually shut the others up . There were times when the silence and tension was so thick. Maybe in the silence they realized what jerks they were being. Of course there were times when they were also in perfect agreement (not a large portion of the 2 hour phone call, though).

It takes all kinds of people to make this world. But hey, it makes for interesting life lessons (i.e.: This is NOT the way to be a "collaborative" researcher). But then I guess you could call this a meeting of the minds--having too many intellectuals (some with bigger egos than others) in one place could be exhausting. When all is said and done, though, I am rather confident the resulting grant proposal will be strong and competitive. But geez, what a stressful process to go through!

...and then I thought to myself...in about 20 years, I'll be one of these people who would sometimes like to reach into the other side of the line to strangle the uncomprehending bully. Hahahaha. Or maybe I'll choose to be the cool, composed, diplomatically correct peacemaker with a point. hahahaha. we'll see...I've got a few years more to go...