Monday 23 June 2014

Committees vs good ideas

During a recent sermon, one of my Facebook posts was quoted. The quote was:

"Committees are where good ideas go to die."

Hearing it out of someone else's mouth made me uncomfortable more than proud. It's a very negative saying, and it isn't completely true on its surface. Not every idea gets killed in committees, and not every committee is a death trap for good things. There are plenty of people in the world who serve on committees that do good, or at least do the best they can with the limited resources and information they have.

The problem is what we make of those other committees. The bigger they are, the slower they move. They'll be more likely to include someone who, for whatever reason, needs to have their mark on everything, and sometimes that means saying "no" to every possible idea until they have changed it significantly enough to be a contributor, even if the idea is already in its best possible form.

That's how committees kill ideas. Not through their nature, but through the nature of some of their members and their mass. More people means more potential anchors, which means less activity.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I don't sit on any regular committees.
PPS - Or any irregular ones, come to think of it.

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