Putting That Sociology Degree To Use

On Friday, I was asked to sit in on a meeting amongst the IT guys, the programming and pipeline development guys, and a couple of supervisors to discuss the creation of software tools to better the efficiency of the studio. It seemed likely to be a yawnfest, but my role was to take notes, organize their schedule and just lend an overall official production presence to these noncommunicative folks.

Instead, I got to witness a prime example of how NOT to run a meeting and conduct a productive discussion. From a sociological perspective, it was fascinating to note how many things these boys did wrong. They stepped all over each other's sentences, constantly interrupting each other. They raised their voices to be heard and drown out the others, pointing at each other when talking (a very aggressive gesture). Some tried to put words in other people's mouths, consistently and wrongly summarizing someone else's thought for them, purely out of impatience. It was such a tense environment.

I was appalled. Yet thankful that I wasn't personally involved in this discussion. If I were being talked to that way, surely I would have hurled my notebook at someone's face. Lucky for them, I was just an observer. It'll be interesting to see how that goes when we reconvene tomorrow.