The focus of the meeting got lost. Blatt, who has studied organizational communication for more than 25 years, says all of these traits are found in business meetings too. Distractions that range from negative comments to convoluted tangents happen in business meetings, he says, and it can be up to the meeting manager or project leader to bring discussions back into focus. Shared jargon helps employees manage processes and projects, but it can also be a way to cope with work and information overload, Blatt says. It can make sense to use jargon so you don't have to repeat the same information over and over.
People use acronyms to avoid long project titles, for example.
The military is notorious for making up words that outsiders may not understand. The only surprise in the student findings, Schemanske said, was that his own experiences as a member of Delta Tau Delta social fraternity were typical of what members of other clubs experienced at their meetings. But it looks like everybody goes through their bickering and somebody's going to screw around and laugh, and that's no big deal. That's what a meeting is. If you can get through a meeting without climate busting, more power to you.