Written By Committee

Take a look at this:

multi

“Multi-purpose spoons?” I’ve gone through life thinking that spoons have one purpose, that is to scoop up food you intend to put in your mouth. While “multi-purpose,” sounds very modern, what do you suppose the other purposes could be?

That’s what you get when committees write things. Somewhere along the line there was a discussion that went something like this:

“Well, we don’t have separate spoons for soup, yogurt, and cereal. Do you think that’s going to confuse people?”

“Well, why don’t we just call them multi-purpose spoons — then everyone will understand that they’re good for all those foods.”

Or how about you just call them spoons, you idiots?

As a rule, committees make things longer. Because of them it takes longer to get things done, they have longer meetings, and they spawn longer copy.

If you fight the good fight against committees and others who impede progress, here are some great resources for you from Bidlack Creative Group, a design and communication firm in Ann Arbor. Print these and hand them up!

The Two Charts of Doom: Population Control in the Creative Process

How to Keep Committees From Turning into Evil Monsters

Five Ways to Kill a Great Idea

The Three Rules of Good Communication

You’ll learn more from these four pages than from a stack of business books.

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