Thursday, June 19, 2008

Snares in the Agenda

Pretend that you are about to conduct a board meeting. Which of the following motions will eat up most of the time?

  1. To remove reserved parking spaces for board members.
  2. To spend $1,200,000 on a research study.
  3. To change the organization's slogan from "Making You Glad" to "Making You Happy."

[If you answered 1 and 3, you understand the psychology of committees. If your answer was 2, you are far too rational.]

2 comments:

Pete Warden said...

All too painfully true. I've also heard this described as Parkinson's Law, or the color of the bikeshed problem, after the example of the time spent debating a nuclear reactor design versus the paint to use on a bike shed.

Michael Wade said...

And if the bikeshed isn't on the agenda, some people will try to create one!