The Law of Triviality

The Law of Triviality, also referred to as “Bikeshedding”, was first identified by C. Northcote Parkinson in 1957. In his example, the people tasked to build a nuclear power plant spent the majority of their time on unimportant issues like what color to paint the bicycle shed, rather than concentrating on the critical details of designing a nuclear power plant.

The bottom line is we waste time on trivial issues while failing to focus on critical tasks. Like moths to the flame, we humans nearly always gravitate to the trivial; which is one reason most corporate meetings are brutal and a waste of time.

The law also notes that part of the time spent on an agenda item is inverse to the amount of money involved. Important decisions are made by the lowest common denominator, diluting valuable resources as management avoids the complexities of the more important items.