obama_management_seminar_onionThis was also too good to pass up ("Time for some Lightness, baby!!").

"The course... reportedly focused on the four C's of management—communicate, collaborate, coordinate, and create—a framework the president described as "an easy way to remember some pretty important stuff."

"Barack did quite well for a first-time participant," said Davies, recalling the president's performance during Deduction, a game in which conference-goers had to guess one another's favorite month, animal, food, TV show, and color. "He was really earnest about his ideas, but he wasn't afraid to use humor, either. When we asked attendees to name their biggest weakness, he said, 'Cooking for my wife,' which got a pretty big laugh.

"...Obama stressed that some of the best moments of the conference came when he got the opportunity to network and trade business cards with fellow attendees... when he and a few fellow attendees would head out to lunch at a nearby Panera Bread.

"I definitely picked up a few strategies that might help me out in cabinet meetings. Even if I don't end up using that stuff every day, it's not a big deal, because the whole thing was paid for by work.

"And at least I got three days away from the office... Hopefully I don't have too much piled up on my desk when I get back."

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White House Sends Obama To 3-Day Management Seminar At Washington Marriott

WASHINGTON—Armed with newly acquired strategies on team leadership, effective communication, and workplace sensitivity, President Barack Obama returned to the Oval Office this morning after spending the past three days at a management seminar, White House sources confirmed.

The professional-development conference reportedly took place at the Marriott Marquis in downtown Washington, where the president joined dozens of business managers from across the mid-Atlantic region for a series of presentations, workshops, and team-building activities aimed at enhancing supervisory skills and fostering confident decision-making.

"This wasn't exactly something I wanted to do, but I figured if I was going to be there for three days I might as well make the most of it," said Obama, noting that the seminar kicked off in the hotel's Ballroom 2A, where he registered at the check-in table, wrote "Barack" on his name tag, and then began the first day's session by playing the ice-breaking game Two Truths And A Lie with other attendees. "As it turns out, I got to talking to some of the other attendees, and we found out we're faced with a lot of the same kinds of challenges, like organization and budgeting. So we bonded a little bit over that."

"I hit it off right away with this guy Tom [Hanley, co-owner of Hanley Comprehensive Payroll Services] from Reston," the president continued. "He runs the third-largest payroll processor in the region. We ended up sitting next to each other for most of the presentations and even grabbing a beer Tuesday in the hotel bar. Great guy."
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