I guess it depends on the culture. It’s up to the leader of the group to set up a successful meeting, and the skill with which you do this can make or break a team.
Where I work, we take turns choosing a relevant scientific paper published by someone in the field. We explain the ideas from the paper to the group and discuss how we can use these ideas in our own research.
For those who have our own projects, we explain the project and the rational behind it to the group. The newer members ask questions which force everyone to think clearly, and the more contrarian members point out flaws in the project.
The best meetings are where someone with a skill spreads it to the rest of the group. For example, the person in charge of the statistical analysis of the data might show everyone else the details of how it is done.
Especially for the undergrads like me, the “how” and “why” of what they are doing gets lost and these meetings help fill them in.
It helps that every meeting has a specific goal, and everyone is aware of this goal before they show up.
Some people zone out and are texting under the table the whole time. They treat meetings like a lecture which they are forced to sit through. Those who show interest and let their intelligence show are given more responsibilities and are given free reign to design their own projects. Obviously there is no “actual work” being done here, but I still think it’s pretty valuable.
I dunno...I think it’s one of the best parts of working in a lab. Running the actual experiments can get really, really boring...the primary pleasure is the exploratory phase where we talk about our ideas. But then, I’m an ENTP so I would say that.
Honestly, reading papers, devising experiments, and exchanging ideas with other people is the entire reason I like science, I don’t enjoy the actual work of running the experiments...anyone with good attention to detail can do that job, given careful instructions.
And it seems to me like intelligent extraverts and introverts both speak up whenever ideas are being discussed. while those who are either less interested or not able to follow what is going on kind of retreat, regardless of intro/extravert status.
Yep, I agree, it probably depends of the organization culture and of the type of meeting. The meetings you describe sound kinda useful and closer to what was meant in the OP. It also covers some meetings I have at work on say brainstorming for game ideas (stuff that we all have to agree on, and where spontaneous surprises are needed), but meetings that are basically status reports about what everybody is working on, or in preparation for an upcoming feature tend to be a bit more like noisy distractions.
I guess it depends on the culture. It’s up to the leader of the group to set up a successful meeting, and the skill with which you do this can make or break a team.
Where I work, we take turns choosing a relevant scientific paper published by someone in the field. We explain the ideas from the paper to the group and discuss how we can use these ideas in our own research.
For those who have our own projects, we explain the project and the rational behind it to the group. The newer members ask questions which force everyone to think clearly, and the more contrarian members point out flaws in the project.
The best meetings are where someone with a skill spreads it to the rest of the group. For example, the person in charge of the statistical analysis of the data might show everyone else the details of how it is done.
Especially for the undergrads like me, the “how” and “why” of what they are doing gets lost and these meetings help fill them in.
It helps that every meeting has a specific goal, and everyone is aware of this goal before they show up.
Some people zone out and are texting under the table the whole time. They treat meetings like a lecture which they are forced to sit through. Those who show interest and let their intelligence show are given more responsibilities and are given free reign to design their own projects. Obviously there is no “actual work” being done here, but I still think it’s pretty valuable.
I dunno...I think it’s one of the best parts of working in a lab. Running the actual experiments can get really, really boring...the primary pleasure is the exploratory phase where we talk about our ideas. But then, I’m an ENTP so I would say that.
Honestly, reading papers, devising experiments, and exchanging ideas with other people is the entire reason I like science, I don’t enjoy the actual work of running the experiments...anyone with good attention to detail can do that job, given careful instructions.
And it seems to me like intelligent extraverts and introverts both speak up whenever ideas are being discussed. while those who are either less interested or not able to follow what is going on kind of retreat, regardless of intro/extravert status.
Yep, I agree, it probably depends of the organization culture and of the type of meeting. The meetings you describe sound kinda useful and closer to what was meant in the OP. It also covers some meetings I have at work on say brainstorming for game ideas (stuff that we all have to agree on, and where spontaneous surprises are needed), but meetings that are basically status reports about what everybody is working on, or in preparation for an upcoming feature tend to be a bit more like noisy distractions.