Recent social science says we’re holding roughly three times the meetings we used to. Derek Thompson writes that “The meeting-industrial complex has grown to the point that communications has eclipsed creativity as the central skill of modern work.”
But wait whut? We’re being too communicative at work? Too relational? Too connected? Too interactive?
Does that track?
We Mode/Switchers take Thompson’s point. Cal Newport’s made similar arguments in the world of email, calling it “communication overload.” But these minimalist approaches to human interaction—Slash the meetings, burn the inboxes!—neglect the ways that meetings could be so much better than they are.
The problem at work isn't that we have too many meetings. The problem's that we don't do meetings like the humans we are. Or should be.
