Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the German statesman and philosopher, said, “Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them become what they are capable of being.”
There are two ways to look at committees and group work. On one hand, it is an insurance policy. When there is a group involved in an endeavour, it spreads the blame. No one person is responsible for failure, any more than no single drop of water feels that it is responsible for the flood. But that is a cynical, sad way of understanding group work. Rather, we recognise that this is an opportunity for all of us, of diverse disciplines and capabilities, to come together, and be part of a collective greater than the sum of its parts. Whether the group is the first type, or the second, comes down to one person – the leader.
Leadership is an intrinsic skill.
Management involves the juggling of resources, and people and their
skills, are a resource. Leadership is
that, but paired with a vision. When
there is no common vision, there is only division. That is when the committee, the group, the
whole, devolves into factions. So we
have to decide, and step up, if necessary.
In the second case, there is success.
And in the first, as the old saying goes, the faeces may hit the fan,
but it will not be evenly distributed.
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