If you doubt the legitimacy of Parkinson’s Law, consider this story from a listener named Chad Wiebe. He’s a financial planner in Canada.
Chad WIEBE: So my boss at the time said, “Let’s have a four-hour long meeting,” which is excruciating. So at the end of this planning meeting we had half an hour still to fill. I put my hand up and I said, “You know what, I think it would be really appreciated if we just cut everybody loose a half hour early, let everyone get back to the office a little bit earlier.” And I was met with silence for about 10, 15 seconds before one of my other middle managers piped up and said, “You know what? I just brought in a client who’s a magician.” And so, we hired a magician. For half an hour. It was unbelievable.
Making meetings better?
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Making meetings better?
So in the latest Freakonomics podcast about making meetings better, there's the following exchange. Do you think he meant unbelievably bad or unbelievably good?
Re: Making meetings better?
Since they’re citing Parkinson’s Law, my guess is a negative connotation.
- erdnasephile
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Re: Making meetings better?
I hate meetings---so much wasted time. The best idea I've seen was a company-wide policy at an investment firm to hold meetings with everyone standing. Another good idea is the "two pizza" rule at Amazon: https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon- ... ngs-2017-6
Can you imagine being the poor magician who had to try to entertain a group that had already been meeting for 3.5 hours?
Can you imagine being the poor magician who had to try to entertain a group that had already been meeting for 3.5 hours?
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Re: Making meetings better?
Believable magic would be a different story.
Mundus vult decipi -per Caleb Carr's story Killing Time