Old joke: a camel is horse designed by committee.*
By coincidence, I had two conversations this week about the perils of letting committees do picking that you should do on your own. In one case, a friend relied on a “committee of friends” to choose a mentor for her, and the result was lousy. In another case, some friends joked about one of our clan who “chooses her boyfriends by committee — she brings guys to our regular Wednesday dinner to see if they survive.”
If you’re about to embark on a long-term relationship, committees can be useful for nominating candidates and for vetting nominees but they’re lousy for picking your final choice. That’s what it’s called your final choice. Whenever you can, look for what you like then see what your team has to say.
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*Camels get short shrift with this joke. For what they do, they’re much better than horses (despite the spitting). Still, don’t look a gift camel in the mouth
Image credit: Aaron Sneddon www.aaronsneddon.co.uk, used with permission under Creative Commons license.
2 thoughts on “Designed by Committee”
“Committees are, by nature, timid. They are based on the premise of safety in numbers; content to survive inconspicuously, rather than take risks and move independently ahead. Without independence, without the freedom for new ideas to be tried, to fail, and to ultimately succeed, the world will not move ahead, but live in fear of its own potential.” – Dr. Ferdinand Porsche
Great advice on when to consult others and when to consult your own wisdom, Phil. (Or, as G. K. Chesterton once said,) “I’ve searched all the parks in all the cities and found no statues of committees.”