Occasionally don't go to meetings, test the water and eventually you'll reduce your meeting load. I try to follow some guidelines like these... http://pmtoolsthatwork.com/boycotting-meetings-as-a-project-management-tool/[^] Also, lack of communication I find is a major issue in many companies. Many meetings don't often constitute as communication though, as people don't speak up, they sit quietly biting their tongue. I would liven up meetings by really blowing some wind on concerns you have, putting people on the spot and make the meetings more exciting: in the long run it will be beneficial for the team, department and company. Often, many people percieve the project from their own little world. As Piaget noted in children's learning; a child (or person with the mental ability of a child as you mention having many in your meetings) creates a mental model of the world (or of an IT project) that can be flawed and through cognitive constructivism this model can be challenged and reformed by other children in the classroom (or by other employees in a meeting, in your case). So, maybe they understand more your concerns and you understand more of why they are making decisions that you don't understand. So speak up, and if the meeting goes down the route of being a waste of time, I would speak up about that. However, this approach can be of high risk, and you need to be careful not to 'annoy' people who if challenged will be aggresive. Personally, I get much more upset if I am biting my tongue, and this is my motivation for speaking out in meetings, although I do so less if I am not too familiar with the people in the meeting.