A tale on Committees

A tale on Committees

Victoria felt tired when she woke up. It was probably a result of her agitated dreams during the night, with images and action she still vividly had in her mind. While she took a shower, she was reflecting on the previous day meeting she had attended. She was the manager of Project Minivan, a project which involved several departments in her company and which implied drastic changes and decisions in order to deliver the final product: a versatile, modern, efficient and fit for use vehicle.

Project Minivan had been running now for over 1 year. Victoria had set up the correct project structure, and had extensively informed key stakeholders, including top management, all the time. She had been making progress over the past year and was ready to finalize the first phase, and had a good concept proposal for a further implementation and eventual launch of the Minivan.

The meeting yesterday had been a surprise. It was a presentation of Minivan to AYSYTR Committee; the Are You Sure Your Technology is Right Committee. One member had been particularly difficult and had raised concerns never before expressed, despite he was a member of the Steering Committee of Minivan. As a result of AYSYTRC decision, Minivan was now split in two: the back wheels and trunk would be Project Mini, and it would be launched first, while the engine and front wheels, Project Van, would be put on hold, as it was considered very complex.

Victoria was frustrated and though what had she done wrong.

Victoria was still puzzled because she had understood the role of the AYSYTRC was to ensure there were no problems on the technical aspects of Minivan in terms of compatibility with other model vehicles, interface of software tools, etc. However, the main concerns expressed were strategy and scope related.

In her way to work, she recalled the words from her colleague Alex, when he explained to her the numerous Committees existing in the Company, and how confusing the decision making was sometimes. Alex explained that there were 4 main Committees:

·       WRHYPC – We Review What You Procure Committee

·       WRWYCSC – We Review What You Can Spend Committee

·       WRWYCHHC – We Review Who You Can Hire and How Committee, and

·       AYSYTRC - Are You Sure Your Technology is Right Committee

The role of WRHYPC was to ensure procurement was correctly done, but they liked looking at strategy or budget, even looked at technical aspects, and sometimes stopped projects because of that, despite the process had been perhaps correctly applied.

The role of WRWYCSC was to ensure budgets were correctly set and money for spending authorized. However, they liked to look at strategy too. They were famous to stop projects despite having them been already discussed, approved and authorized by the Chief Executive Officer in person.

The role of WRWYCHHC was to decide on who was appointed where. They were famous for strictly applying rules sometimes despite the desire of the person in question, and his/her managers in both the receiving and current position. Considerations on efficiencies, adequacy of person to role were secondary to making sure X people were allocated to X positions.

Finally, nobody was totally cleared what the role of the AYSYTRC was. It was supposed to be to ensure that technology was correctly applied, coherent and consistent with other projects. However, they liked also to discuss strategies and budget. And this Committee was known by its frequent postponements or cancellations of scheduled meetings

This decision making by Committees was rather confusing and slowed down progress in the Company. Moreover, the Committees did not meet as regularly as the business required. Sometimes, the meetings were cancelled and a decision was therefore put on hold. The whole business was cumbersome.

Victoria had a bright idea!: she would apply the homeopathic principle of “alike cures alike”. She would propose to create an overarching Committee, which would be the remedy: the OCOCC, Overarching Coordination of Committees Committee. That would be the solution. The OCOCC would meet quarterly, and would rule on conflicts among the Committees. Its scope to be wide: strategy, budget, technology (hard and soft), HR, etc, etc

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While Victoria was internally elaborating her proposal, her Guardian Angel was writing a letter to the Lord of Common Sense in the following terms:

Dear Lord,

I write to you in urgency asking or your intervention in the Company. Common Sense has disappeared and a cloud of strict rule thinking is replacing pragmatism and effectiveness. Moreover, managers responsibilities are confused by the collective decision making.

My Lord, as advised by you in the last Heavens and Earth Strategic Meeting, the working by Committee does not encourage individuals to take calculated risks. The business is slowing down to the extent that we start to worry that the Company survival is at risk.

Yours,

Victoria’s Guardian Angel

The Lord of Common Sense put the letter aside and smiled. It was working again!! These Humans, they would never learn! After the Babel fiasco when his Great Grand Father had confused them all by creating all the different languages, this Working-by-Committee intervention was starting to work.

The Lord stood up and went to walk his dog. He felt well.