I had a colleague who had very little faith in informational meetings as an effective or efficient form of communication.
However he always arrived at meetings several minutes early, sat at a seat near the door and engaged in general chit-chat with arriving participants and the leader. After about 10 minutes after the start (this was before widespread use of cell phones-it is much easier today), he would exit the room in a hunched position, quickly, quietly with a furtive look of urgency. He never returned.
His theory was: anything really important would be announced during the first 10 minutes; everyone would report that he was at the meeting and in fact they had spoken to him; no-one remembers who was at the meeting at the end; meeting minutes (in the unlikely even they were taken) recorded attendance and non-attendance, but never partial attendance.
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