Meetings Make Us Dumber
I knew it! A new study shows that people have a harder time generating solutions to problems when they are engaged in the exercise as a group. And since there is some science loosely tied in to this post, now I am just going to rant about the time I was in a meeting and my boss, exasperated with a project that was growing out of hand used this gem of a mixed metaphor, “We have to water down this speeding bullet.” Sigh. Those were the days. Most meetings I’ve participated in seemed like little more than exercises in blamestorming, or babysitting. “Have you done thing X that I asked you to do?” “Yes.” “Then here’s thing Y.” OR “Have you done thing X that I asked you to do?” “No.” “Why?” “Because of thing Z.” This is all a gross generalization but who cares. Even people who like meetings, don’t think they’re useful.