Henry Mintzberg, in his book 'The Nature of Managerial Work', found that in large organizations managers spent 22 per cent of their time at their desk, 6 per cent on the telephone, 3 per cent on other activities, but a whopping 69 percent in meetings. There is a widely held but mistaken belief that meetings are for "solving problems" and "making decisions". For a start, the number of people attending a meeting tends to be inversely proportional to their collective ability to reach conclusions and make decisions. And these are least important elements. Instead hours are devoted to side issues, playing elaborate games with one another. All meetings have one thing in common: role-playing. The most formal role is that of chairman. Then there are the "cant-do" types who want to maintain the status quo. Then there are the "counter dependents", those who usually disagree with everything that is said. A popular game is pinching someone else's suggestions. In the end, meetings are a necessary though not necessarily productive psychological side-show.
