Crap organisation: an occasional series. No. 5: steering committees

We do not find it remarkable that, in a century and a half of automotive technology, the drafters of the Highway Code have never found the space to sanction the operation of a vehicle by consensus. A car is more likely — these days, far more likely — effectively to drive itself than it is to be driven by a committee.

A committee will steer it into the nearest wall. Indeed, only the physical impossibility of a unitary object travelling in two directions at once would prevent a committee steering into every wall.

These are truths we hold to be self-evident.

Yet — every day, in every organisation, thousands of well-intentioned employees spend their lives on, subject to, being broken on a wheel by, or being vigorously propelled about the confines of their employer’s premises like tiny passengers in a deflating balloon thanks to the resolutions of, steering committees.

Most metaphors don’t bear close examination. This one does.

Articles in the Crap Organisation series:

• No. 1: the circle of escalation
• No. 2: The farewell email
• No. 3: Hold music
• No. 4: computer-based training

There is always more discussion of Greeks, Latin, flannel, derivatives and the mediocre practice of the law at https://jollycontrarian.com