Acronym

Committee meetings are challenging, sometimes painful. Even here, at the fountain of knowledge for experts in running committees, we struggle and toil together often. Committees have the extraordinary ability to take an idea that once seemed so clear, and confound it with opinion, experience, and yes, a little bit of egoism.

On the flipside, sometimes these meetings move fast and decisions are made rapidly, leaving some feeling content and others feeling left behind.

Either way, we seem to always find that our ideal process doesn't match the actual conglomeration that is a normal committee meeting. But I believe that there's good to be found in most committee meetings, even when they're frustrating. Here are 3 reasons to smile after any committee meeting:

1) Ideas Need to Be New, Even if They are Old: Sometimes we need to feel like our ideas are new...Committee members are seeking some type of fulfillment, we aren't getting paid; our ideas matter in the sense that we are there, in the room, together...of the thousands of other people who could be there, we are the 10 or 20 who showed up.

2) Circles Are More Powerful Than Squares: Our human nature seems to lead us in the direction of creating boxes in which everything has a logical progression and makes sense to us. Truth is, most of what we are trying to manage is as much a product of chaos, luck, and perspective...so we analyze and re-analyze in circles, shaking our heads at each other. We might forget that the process of renewal and repetition is inherent in all natural things, and when people discuss and plan together we should not discount this process. Sometimes the place where we started is where we need to be, but we need to get everyone there at the same time.

3) People are a Force of Nature: Some of us are strong, we know where we stand and we want others to stand with us; some of us are flexible, we want to develop, cultivate, and contribute; some of us are of the pack, we enjoy communion and shared experience; and some of us builders, we see order and design always.

What point is there in working in such a weird model to make decisions? The point is that we will never truly understand the forces at play when a group of committed, passionate people get together. But we can do our best to ride the wave and harness the energy that we all create, and mold it into a more cohesive and inclusive framework than what we could do alone.