If you want to kill any idea in the world today, get a committee working on it.
--Charles F. Kettering, Inventor.
--Charles F. Kettering, Inventor.
When I was working on my last job, I told my boss I thought a committee was a waste of time. He should tell me what he wanted, mention some people that might be helpful or some other sources I might find helpful. Give me a deadline, then let me do the job he was paying me for.
When I got together all the information I could, when all the information was as close to complete as I thought it could be, I put together a detailed report, with charts if necessary, cited sources, then crossed my fingers that what I gave him was what he wanted.
The monthly report that I submitted to him was from figures gleaned from a pile of print-outs from headquarters. There was a form that had headings and formulas ready for me to fill in, and it was a headache! I'm not numbers-oriented, and were it not for the ready-made formulas, I probably would have been fired the first month. After a few reports, I began to see relationships, so subsequent reports weren't so bad. But let one number be wrong, he would spot it immediately. So, believe me, I proof-read every single number I typed!!
All my semi-annual and annual personnel evaluations were Met or Exceeded Expectations. Except. Except my filing. I hated filing. Stuff that needed to be filed away ended in a stack that took me one whole day to put away in the proper folders. I got better about it after my boss threatened me with a pay cut. Because that's what a Did Not Meet meant. Needs Improvement did warrant a pay cut. So before I did anything else in the morning, I filed.
Now all this is to say that I did all this by myself. I didn't form a committee to find stuff for me. I went to the source of information for what I needed. We didn't sit around in a committee meeting and discuss what was needed or where to find it. "And get back to me next week with the figures I need." None of that, because next week is when I needed to have the completed report on my boss' desk.
A committee never would have gotten the filing done.
Committees are a waste of time.
Bless