On Teams and not Committees

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“Organization doesn’t really accomplish anything. Plans don’t accomplish anything, either. Theories of management don’t much matter. Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people involved.” – Colin Powell

A team comprises a group of people or animals linked in a common purpose. while a committee is a group of persons convened for the accomplishment of some specific purpose, typically with formal protocols. Amazingly enough the definitions are almost similar but while a committee is a team, a team isn’t always a committee.

The best team is refreshed one or 2 people at a time. The team needs it’s veterans to explain why the team does certain things, and , and to share their experience, while the veteran need new blood and new ideas. Without either, the team gets stagnant without new blood and does thing it doesn’t understand without veterans.

Everyone has teams, it’s a base functionality of the human condition. Large companies call them skunk works, while minztberg calls them ad-hoc organizations.

The army has long since learned the effectiveness of teams and put together teams of different strength, they also do something very useful that us civilians need to learn. They teach each man a base proficiency in every other team members job. Nothing extensive, just enough that in an emergency a quick substitute can be made until a replacement is found. The problem usually comes in when temporary becomes permanent. The team suffers from a loss of a skill.

A committee however is a deliberative body. In every-way they are a team, yet a better definition would be that a committee has an agenda, while a Team has a purpose. Committee’s also tend to be democratic, each member having a purpose yet “equal” say even if they are hierarchical.

The main differences is that over time a committee becomes self preserving and self serving. It soon exist to allow itself it exist, unlike a team which moves from task to task. One would be hard pressed to find a committee that doesn’t soon wish to make itself permanent or who’s members don’t soon follow individual agendas.

We here are strong believers in teams and teamwork, but not in a committee. A team is an effective way to keep focus and solve a problem or continue work. A committee just he start of a bureaucracy.

 

 

OceansOfThought @ August 21, 2008