Want to kill a great idea? Create a committee and see it die, instantly.

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The setup: Sally is fed up of committee-based decision making. It always seems to be the least exciting and acceptable thing to do but nothing that will make people take action. As a marketing executive, she wants her team to stand FOR something, not everything. Joey has the perfect quote for her, of course!

Sally enters the coffee shop flustered. As she puts her jacket on the back of her chair, Joey slides over the latte he ordered for her. “What’s up?” he casually asks. “Well, remember when I was asked to lead a game-changing marketing campaign for my company?”

Joey immediately responds, “Yep.” Sally continues, “Well, I didn’t realize that I was a part of a committee.” Joey, looking perplexed, asks, “What’s wrong with that?”

Sally, getting a little irritated, says “It’s such a large group of people that everything is way too complex.”

“Well, my long lost virtual mentor, David Ogilvy has the perfect response to that in Ogilvy on Advertising. “I’m listening,” Sally quips. He quotes:

“Down with committees. Most campaigns are too complicated. They reflect a long list of objectives and try to reconcile the divergent views of too many executives. By attempting to cover too many things, they achieve nothing."

“Cheers to that!” Sally exclaims. “But, what can I do about that?” Joey sits backs and strokes his beard. Well, hit it with a stick.” Sally almost spits out her drink. “What?!?”

Joey chuckles. “That was the philosophy of Steve Jobs and Apple has run with it ever since,” Joey explains. “In fact, there was a whole book written about written by Ken Segall. It’s called appropriately titled “Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success.”

“I’ll definitely have to check it out. But, in the meantime, what can I do to deal with this committee problem?” Sally asks.

Segall writes - You need to be the enforcer and be prepared to hit the process with the Simple Stick when the group is threatened with unnecessary expansion.

That’s not easy. But, I’ve used the following framework to keep things SIMPLE:

S- Set one clear goal with your idea.

I - Invite input as needed but make sure you are empowered to make decisions.

M- Make customer feedback a priority over internal approvals.

P - Push back on "executive" pressures and let results speak for itself.

L - Limit Parkison’s Law by setting a time limit.

E - Eliminate scope creep at all costs by going back to that one clear goal.

Bonus: Want more ways on how to simplify your work? Check out this TED Talk from Yves Morieux, which has been viewed more than 3 million times. 

Leaderpoint: Committees kill great ideas, instantly. ??

Question: How do you give life to a great idea?

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