Brian Miller, M.D., M.B.A., M.P.H.

One of the most underappreciated dynamics in healthcare is Parkinson’s Law of Triviality: organizations devote disproportionate time to the issues that matter least. In behavioral economics, it’s called “complexity avoidance.” In healthcare, it’s usually called “the weekly meeting” or sometimes referred to as “the huddle.” We’ll spend hours debating badge colors, committee names, logo refreshes, and which department should ‘own’ a metric - while multimillion-dollar structural failures, workforce collapse, and catastrophic billing inefficiencies glide by untouched. The harder the problem, the faster it gets tabled “for further discussion and research.” The easier the problem, the louder the opinions - suddenly everyone’s an expert. This is why health systems have immaculate branding guidelines but chaotic revenue cycles. Why they can produce a 200-page “cultural competence” report but can’t reliably staff a night shift. Why they optimize hallway signage faster than clinical throughput. Why they talk about all the community service that they produce yet none is ever actually observed or experienced. This is why dilettantes are rewarded and brilliance is punished. Healthcare doesn’t suffer from a lack of goobers, gomers, and grifters - it suffers from a gravitational pull toward the trivial. And nothing accelerates that gravity quite like a conference room full of administrators with laptops.