3rd March 2025
Cyril Northcote Parkinson, the British naval historian who coined Parkinson’s Law (the idea that work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion), once wrote of a hypothetical scenario in an organization that may feel all-too-familiar.
A committee is gathered to discuss two items:
A proposal for a $10 million atomic reactor
A proposal for a $350 bike shed
Parkinson describes the scene and suggests that a tiny amount of time is spent on the $10 million reactor, while most of the time is spent on the $350 bike shed.
He concludes that the amount of time spent on an item is inversely proportional to the amount of money involved.
This became known as the Law of Triviality, or, more colloquially, the Bike Shed Effect.
The essence of his argument is that, in large organizations or bureaucracies, complex, expensive topics fly over most people’s heads, so go through quickly, while simple, cheap topics are understandable, so everyone wants to provide their opinion.
Everyone feels the need to add their input to the simple matter to prove their value to the whole, even if the input doesn’t add anything of note.
Avoid the Bike Shed Effect and make your meetings and organizations run more efficiently and effectively & stay blessed forever.