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Parkinson's Law of Triviality / Bikeshedding

· One min read

What is bikeshedding?

Members of an organization give disproportionate weight to trivial issues.

Parkinson provides the example of a fictional committee whose job was to approve the plans for a nuclear power plant spending the majority of its time on discussions about relatively minor but easy-to-grasp issues, such as what materials to use for the staff bike shed, while neglecting the proposed design of the plant itself, which is far more important and a far more difficult and complex task.

How to overcome the bikeshedding?

Having a clear agenda of the meeting. Or even do not mix complex topics with easy ones.

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