Recently I asked a lifelong friend (‘Joe’) to assist another friend (‘Jim’) with a social service project Jim was leading. With all of the other things going on in Joe’s life, it appeared he waited right up until the deadline to provide some guidance to Jim. “I’m leaving town for a week and won’t be able to help,” wrote Joe, “so here is a summary of what I think you should do.”
I was copied on that email and after reading Joe’s comments, I realized there were several things missing and a few items that needed clarifying. So, of course, I quickly weighed in with my ideas in a Reply All. Then about 10 minutes later, I thought: “Why did I get in the middle of this?” I just confused things for Jim even further.
Later that day, I received a text from Jim: “Tell me again why you thought I needed your and Joe’s help?” Point taken. Too many cooks indeed.
