The Bike Shed Effect

C. Northcote Parkinson is famous for numerous findings. For one, he found that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” That’s known as Parkinson’s Law, and it’s one of the reasons why meetings need to be shorter. The literature on that subject is endless. 

Today I want to elaborate on one of Parkinson’s lesser known findings, the Bike Shed Effect.  

The law works like this: say you’re in the formative stages of planning a project. As Parkinson puts it, “The time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum [of money] involved.” If a committee is planning to build a nuclear reactor, their focus on each aspect will be disproportionate to its level of importance. Instead of spending the majority of time talking about the reactor’s core, more time will be spent talking about designing the bike sheds outside the building.

Who really knows how a nuclear reactor works? Far fewer people than those who know how to design a bike shed. 

Everyone would contribute input proportional to their understanding of the matter at hand. As a result, a disproportionate amount of time and energy is spent on trivial matters. 

Tomorrow we’ll see how this applies to the vaccine rollout.