Most Recent Posts

The ouster of Bryan Stockton from his CEO perch at Mattel this week came as the toy maker's best-known brands like Barbie stagnate and it loses business to Web-based games.

Stockton himself said last year that Mattel lacked an innovative culture and blamed it in part on something specific: bad meetings. That's a common and persistent corporate ailment.

Scott Ryan-Hart is a cartographer for the Ohio Department of Transportation, where a typical meeting can last more than two hours.

"I would be needed for 15 minutes in the middle of it," Ryan-Hart says. "So I have an hour before and an hour after that I'm still kind of sequestered in this meeting and I can't get out of it."

This annoyed Ryan-Hart, until about a year ago, when he took up superhero doodling during meetings, which he tweeted under the hashtag "#Meetingfromhell." His boss wasn't a fan.

i

Scott Ryan-Hart made this superhero doodle during one of his extensive work meetings. Scott Ryan-Hart hide caption

itoggle caption Scott Ryan-Hart

Scott Ryan-Hart made this superhero doodle during one of his extensive work meetings.

Scott Ryan-Hart

"He was not super happy with it," Ryan-Hart says.

Then again, his colleagues have their own vices.

"I'm usually sketching ... the person next to me is doing email, someone else is reading reports that they have to get done," he says.

This behavior, says Steven Rogelberg, should sound alarms to the meeting leader. Rogelberg teaches industrial/organizational psychology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

"You're basically getting tremendous amounts of feedback. You're getting feedback that you're running a really bad meeting," Rogelberg says.

The average American office worker spends more than nine hours of every week preparing for, or attending, project update meetings, according to a the results of a survey released last week by the software firm Clarizen and Harris Polls. That's up nearly 14 percent from the last survey four years ago.

Experts say poorly run meetings grind away at employee engagement, and make companies less reactive by bogging decisions down in human red tape. Some companies, including Mattel, try to create limits around the size, duration or frequency of meetings.

But meetings often last longer than they need to, Rogelberg says, because managers don't understand Parkinson's Law. This is the idea, backed up by research, that tasks take as long as the time allotted. You budget two hours, it takes two hours.

But, "given the same agenda," Rosenberg says, "they give the group half as much time ... and lo and behold, when they're given half as much time at the onset, they finish in half as much time! And the quality of the meeting is just as good."

Al Pittampalli is an author and an expert on "meeting culture." He says at their best, meetings are the lifeblood of an organization.

"They're the place where we make the most important decisions, express the most important messages, the most important communications on the most important matters of the day," he says.

But as a consultant, Pittampalli sees meeting culture run amok.

He sees "not just marathon meetings, but meetings that are done to prepare for meetings, and meetings that are done to prepare for meetings to prepare for meetings. It is a waste of time — it's what I call a weapon of mass interruption."

Shots - Health News

Young Women And Men Seek More Equal Roles At Work And Home

All Tech Considered

Many Women Leave Engineering, Blame The Work Culture

It's also expensive to waste employee time. So why does the practice persist?

Book Reviews

A Biography Of Your Cubicle: How This Became The Modern Workplace

"One of the biggest problems in organizations is that the meeting is a tool that is used to diffuse responsibility," Pittampalli says.

He says meetings alleviate the anxiety of making tough calls by delaying decisions, instead of making them.

Bad meetings also recur because, in many cases, the people leading them don't know how to run a good one.

There's a lack of self-awareness among meeting leaders. The vast majority self-report that they believe they're conducting meetings well, while the vast majority of participants disagree. Yet Pittampalli says no one speaks up.

"Nobody is willing to give feedback to their boss," he says.

And so, the endless meetings go on, and on, and on.

work culture

workplace

productivity

The political network led by industrialists Charles and David Koch plans to spend $889 million dollars for the 2016 elections. In modern politics, it's more than just a ton of money.

It's about as much as the entire national Republican party spent in the last presidential election cycle, four years ago. And as Sheila Krumholz – director of the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks politicians and donors – pointed out in an interview, it's double what the Koch brothers and their network spent in 2012.

Krumholz summed it up: "It is staggering."

But not just staggering – it's also mostly secret. The Republican and Democratic political parties have to disclose their donors. The Koch network consists almost entirely of groups that don't register under the campaign finance laws, and so don't publicly identify their donors.

"So much of their funding and operations are conducted in secret that we really don't know else is behind this," Krumholz said.

The Koch organization unveiled the $889-million budget to several hundred donors at a private conference in Palm Springs, Calif., which concluded Monday. Donors were asked to pledge.

The conference featured Republican senators who were elected last fall with help from the Koch network and their success stories colored the event.

No other outside money operation matches the Koch network in funding or organizational breadth. Various components of the network run TV ads, do grassroots work and phone banking, develop voter data files, and reach out to veterans, women, Hispanic voters and young voters.

"Essentially we've created a new party. It's the party of conservative, rich activists," said political scientist Darrell West, author of Billionaires, a book about wealthy donors in politics. While the Republican and Democratic parties have big donor bases, West said, with the Koch donors, "you're talking about an incredibly tiny slice of Americans."

Before the pledging session at the Palm Springs conference, donors watched three likely GOP presidential candidates in a debate. Moderator Jonathan Karl, of ABC News, asked the three about the influence of wealthy donors.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said the real political corruption involves government contracts: "I haven't met one person since I've been here or as I travel around the country who's come up to me saying, 'Oh, I want a contract.' They simply wanna be left alone."

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said the real corruption was about special access, which wasn't happening with these donors. "I don't know a single person in this room who's ever been to my office, and I haven't seen everyone here today, but a single one who's been to my office asking from government any special access."

But it was Texas Sen. Ted Cruz who gave a full-throated endorsement of his hosts.

"Let me very clear. I admire Charles and David Koch," he said. "They are businessmen who have created hundreds of thousands of jobs."

Cruz paused for the audience to clap. "And they have stood up for free market principles and endured vilification, with equanimity and grace."

There's no word yet on whether the donors were dazzled. But the Koch network is showing interest in jumping into the presidential primary fight, something it's never done before.

2016 Republican presidential nomination

Koch Brothers

After Miss Colombia's Paulina Vega won the Miss Universe pageant on Sunday, she was greeted with a scepter, tiara and a kiss from the first runner-up, Miss U.S.A. But even as Vega took her first steps as Miss Universe, something that was happening elsewhere on stage caught a lot of attention.

Photos circulated online that showed several other contestants trying to hoist Miss Jamaica, Kaci Fennell, in the air. Many members of the live audience booed loudly after it was announced that 22-year-old Fennell had placed only fifth in the competition, and there was still a steady chant of 'Jamaica' as Vega talked with the media about her victory.

Support for Miss Jamaica continued online as twitter users launched #MissJamaicaWasRobbed and #MissJamaicaShouldHaveWon hashtags to the night's top trending topics. Some allege the winner was predetermined.

VIDEO: Crowd yelling "Jamaica!" while half the #MissUniverse contestants surround and cheer her on after cr... https://t.co/hvFuq7LWLn

— the Pageant Guy (@thePageantGuy) January 26, 2015

"Even the contestants saw that it was rigged," said twitter user Melanie W. "When you ever see people congratulate the fourth runner-up and not the winner?"

Yet Miss Jamaica is downplaying the attention she's getting after igniting a firestorm of criticism aimed at this year's Miss Universe pageant. While heading back to her home country, Fennell told reporters the competition "went exactly how it should."

That hasn't stopped some critics of Sunday's competition of accusing pageant organizers of racial and cultural bias. Since Miss Universe first began in 1952, only four black women have won the title. Of those four, only two are from the continent of Africa. Requests for comment from the Miss Universe Organization were not returned.

At this year's competition, women representing more than 80 countries from six different continents competed. None of those finalists was from Africa, and most were fair-skinned Latinas. There were observers who also pointed out that Fennell's skin tone isn't representative of the vast majority of Jamaican people.

Folks can acknowledge Miss Jamaica is beautiful AND also talk about how colourism plays a role in the underrepresentation of darker sisters.

— rell (@Awkward_Duck) January 26, 2015

Several viewers tweeted complaints about the pageant's lack of global representation among the finalists. Twitter user @lukesassycalum questioned "What's the point of inviting other countries if the same ones continue to win?" Model Aisha Thalia tweeted her frustration: "I can't wait until the day that girls who don't fit into the European standard of beauty feel celebrated as well."

i

Critics suggested that most finalists conformed to a European standard of beauty, even though 88 countries from six continents were represented at the pageant. Wilfredo Lee/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Wilfredo Lee/AP

Critics suggested that most finalists conformed to a European standard of beauty, even though 88 countries from six continents were represented at the pageant.

Wilfredo Lee/AP

Others insisted Miss Jamaica's fifth place finish had more to do with her unconventional appearance than her ethnicity. Pageant contestants traditionally sport long, flowing manes while Fennell opted for a pixie cut. Miss Jamaica addressed her unique look in the question-and-answer portion of the competition: "I don't have long tresses like everyone else, I'm just representing myself and that's what beauty pageants are all about. You don't have to look a certain way ... and I feel like I represent that."

Popular pageant blog Missosology called out the competition for repeated top five appearances by countries where pageants have large followings, even including complaints from former contestants. Favoring competitors from pageant powerhouse countries could leave smaller nations at a disadvantage because they don't give pageant officials the best opportunity for publicity. Jamaica is a nation of just under three million people, though the first black Miss Universe was from an even smaller island nation. Janelle Commissiong — of Trinidad and Tobago — won the title in 1977.

In contrast, Colombia has a strong pageant culture due in large part to the country's booming beauty industry. The Miss Colombia competition is as popular there as the Super Bowl is in the U.S. Colombia and neighboring Venezuela dominate international beauty competitions. Vega is Colombia's second winner of the Miss Universe pageant after decades of runner-up finishes.

But Colombia is not without pageant controversy of its own. Contestants tend to represent the country's wealthier, whiter population despite most Colombians being of indigenous or African descent.

Meanwhile, the attention surrounding Miss Universe's controversial finale could be boosting Miss Jamaica's career. She is already receiving offers for television appearances and modeling. Fennell congratulated Vega in a tweet following the competition. Before the pageant, she tweeted this: "Matters not what the outcome may be, because tonight marks only the beginning."

Heartiest congratulations to our beautiful new Miss Universe Paulina Vega, all the best on your journey my dear :) @MissUniverse

— Kaci Fennell (@KaciFen) January 26, 2015

#missjamaica

miss jamaica

Miss Universe pageant

miss colombia

Holocaust survivors gathered along with several world leaders today to mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation by the Soviet Red Army of the Auschwitz camp in Poland where more than 1 million people, mostly Jews, were killed.

NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson tells our Newscast unit that "among the leaders who will be attending the Auschwitz ceremony are the presidents of Germany and Austria, the nations that gave rise to the Nazis and have since tried atoning for their sins. But more attention is being paid to who isn't at Auschwitz today – Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose countrymen liberated the concentration camp."

She adds: "Russian officials accuse the Polish government of snubbing Putin by not inviting him as they did in the past. Organizers say no country's leaders were invited but rather, countries were asked who they planned to send."

A decade ago, about 1,500 Auschwitz survivors attended the commemoration. Today, the number was around 300.

As Soraya says: "It is likely the last decade anniversary where significant numbers of actual survivors of Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps will attend. This year, the youngest of the 300 who traveled to Poland for the ceremony are in their 70s."

Paula Lebovics of Encino, Calif., recalled how a Russian soldier who was among those who liberated the camp on Jan. 27, 1945, took her in his arms and rocked her tenderly with tears coming to his eyes. She was 11 at the time. Now 81, she told The Associated Press it was a shame Putin wasn't among those at the today's ceremony.

"He should be there," she said. "They were our liberators."

Another survivor, Eva Mozes Kor, told the AP said she will not miss Putin, "but I do believe that from a moral and historical perspective he should be here."

Besides the leaders of Germany and Austria, French President Francois Hollande was at today's ceremony in Auschwitz. Russia's delegation is being led by Sergei Ivanov, Putin's chief of staff; the U.S. delegation by Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.

Auschwitz