I’ve always felt that committees were pure evil, something to be avoided at all cost. The decision making process grinds to a halt, creativity is throttled into submission and the life is kicked out of any potentially great project.
I’ve been neglecting my blog reading this week (and last) as we all scurry around in a kind of organized chaos getting ready to release our somewhat 007 major product offering for this year this month, but happened to stop by Jeremy’s site and see his post about how committees suck the life out of projects and displaying this rather natty graphic from a post about risk aversion at one of my long time (hehe, well a few months at least) favorite blogs, creating passionate users.
The post at CPU is superb btw, read it.
Being a company of 3 and a half (i dont get to steal all of andy’s time..) we dont suffer from this particular ailment, if we all agree, great, if i want to get my own way i just shout and scream untill i do 🙂
6 thoughts on “Risk Aversion Kills Creativity”
I think it depends on the value you add and the mix you have, we have far more than 80% absolutely purely original stuff and we always add value to our linking out posts. It falls down on those blogs where it is copy and paste or me-too. Some blogs though are great and successful simply because of the editing or filter job they do, notably boingboing. Always always give credit where it is due though!
Depends, sometimes its hard to have a conversation, or draw the attention of your readers to something you think is cool without repeating some of that cool.
Nick after seeing the same graphic here that I’d seen at Jeremy’s and CPU I thought whoa…..but you did a great job with the credits trail and adding some value of your own.
That said, I worry sometimes that many posts including many of mine are simply variations on the same themes popular with the online “elite” like Jeremy, Matt, you, etc …
Are a lot of blogs sacrificing original thinking in favor of quick copycatting?
You must be wired in so many unique ways, it is good stuff!
Anyone who has worked in corporate hellholes know this all too well. The dilbertesque “committee to select the panel for deciding the working group that will plan the meetings for discussion on the pre-agm brainstorm preliminary fact-finding policy protocol body. Agenda item one; decaf or half caf?”
I have to say… that post you link… reads like drivel… smells like drivel… arg I can’t stand the idealism!
Not trying to troll or anything but man sometimes I feel like I’m in a different galaxy than these peeps.
*added: yea small biz’s are more nimble, etc. I get it… not necessarily arguing with the points… but man is my mind wired differently!
*added 2: I see that post was written by a Kathy Sierra — “wired differently” — maybe I just need a woman on my team! *ducks for cover*
Smaller business is able to move quickly and adopt ideas in nearly real time, making them a dangerous adversary to larger companies. When you team like minded companies that are small, they become very powerful!
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