How many times have we heard that?

How many times have we heard that? 

 

I have a theory about committees.

The reason so many committees fail is because they fail to speak in one voice.

It happens too often. Someone gets voted onto a committee – or gets themselves voted onto a committee – and, once the decision has been made, they’re the voice in the background saying, “Sure, that was the decision, but my idea would have been better.”

No wonder committees have a reputation for being a dark alley down which ideas are lured then quietly strangled.

I’m a firm believer in the good a committee can do.
They can get things done.
They can gather opinions and make considered recommendations.
But one voice needs to make one decision at the end.

One clear voice.

Charm, or lack of it, is one of the clues you’re seeing one of the few survivors of Committee Alley.

I love advertising.
And I weep whenever I see these battered remnants of ideas limping across the televisions screen. The once beautiful ideas saddled with eighties hair and a polio brace and forced to tap dance to a hip hop version of “God Save The Queen.”
We’ve all seen them.
Delightful ads, with something not quite right about them.
The bikie looks like Brad Pitt. Or the video has a weird tinge that’s kind of like but not quite the same as the colour on the pack. Or the ones where the headline and the picture make the picture, or the headline, redundant.
It all makes perfect sense at the time.
Until you see the final product and someone realises Napoleon’s horse has five legs and is playing a kazoo.

Don’t hate the ad. Or the building. Or the car. (Does anyone remember the Ford Edsel? Have a look at the grill. It’s the horse designed by a committee that ended up looking like a camel toe.)

The odd bit  is just the squeaky wheel in the committee saying, “I’m here too. How clever am I! Look. Here. This is the bit I changed.”

Committees should be a good thing.
They should exist to find the idea no one could reach on their own.
To make the decision that is the best possible answer for a specific issue – not the decision that appeases the most people.

Perhaps if they used their energy and their combined intellect to face up to whatever it is they’re afraid might happen, great things might actually start happening.

The only thing the committee should be killing is fear.

The Ford Edsel. The only monument a committee needs.

The Ford Edsel. The only monument a committee needs.