Is your meeting really necessary?
Thanks to http://analyticzen.wordpress.com/2011/12/23/work-moments/ I listened to Jason Fried on the subject of meetings. When we taught undergraduate students about communications skills, we sometimes used a film called "Meetings, Bl***y Meetings" which satirised the management culture which arranged a meeting at fixed time intervals, irrespective of whether or not there was anything to discuss.
Now I know that sometimes, we in O.R. need meetings, but do we need every one of them? I wonder.
Now I know that sometimes, we in O.R. need meetings, but do we need every one of them? I wonder.
I find it mildly amusing that you published this entry on the same day that an "important" meeting that had been schedule, had its venue changed, and then rescheduled was abruptly canceled.
ReplyDeleteAs to whether meetings are necessary, consider this. OR people live to increase efficiency. If we become too good at it, we may frighten other people who are less quantitative, to the point of reprisals. (Picture the stock scene in vintage monster movies, where the villagers arrive at the castle sporting torches and pitchforks.) A sufficiency of meetings serves to prevent us from being overly productive. Perhaps meetings are a necessary evolutionary damper?