The thoughts of a sociologist in a meeting of organization members

Back in January I expressed some frustration that my involvement with local government was largely useless. I am not on a slightly different subcommittee that has the purpose of looking at data to see how research has explored various approaches to the problem. This is the part I thought I could be useful for! So how did the first meeting go? Like this:

1. Somebody tells a story about how their organization handles the problem.
2. This approach is termed a “suggestion.”
3. People share personal opinions about this suggestion.
4. Others tell stories about how their organizations could use this suggestion.
5. I think about how much I hate these meetings.
6. Somebody tells a story about how their organization handles the problem.
7. This approach is termed a “suggestion.”
8. People share personal opinions about this suggestion.
9. Others tell stories about how their organizations could use this suggestion.
10. People remark how much they are learning from this exchange of information that is based purely on anecdotal evidence.
11. These anecdotes are labeled “best practices.”
12. I think about how much I hate these meetings.

I’m sure that to those involved in these organizations, sharing stories like this is fun and interesting. What these stories are not, however, is based on anything other than anecdotal evidence with no real information about whether an approach has worked for an organization or not. Some know that their organization does a thing and others contemplate how their organization could do that thing.

If only there were a large body of research about the problem that we could somehow tap into…