ABSTRACT
How does an organization create the right conditions for committees to thrive? What can we do as committee chairs or members to encourage levels of commitment and dedication found in high-performing teams? We have discussed some of the organizational, leadership, and independent characteristics that can be instituted to encourage committee engagement, but how are these efforts choreographed? Shaping a committee is a lot like working on your golf swing or learning how to bake bread. You should tinker with only one aspect of the committee at a time lest you confuse which cause results in which effect. Challenges to evolving committees into high-functioning, effective, and productive teams include our historical conception of committees, their role in our organizations, and how they are managed. As Kevin stated,
Once you have norms and patterns in place, it’s very difficult to change them. You have to have very specific people, typically leaders, who take on very specific behaviors in order to make those changes. Most leaders in organizations don’t do that, and so it’s the inertia of the organization that is reflected in a lot of committees.
