BACKGROUND PAPER

COMMITTEES

In the case of THIN, many of the activities are project oriented. They require people from different disciplines working closely together towards a common objective. We need experts in planning and executing programmes, projects, activities, organizing and conducting demonstrations, writing, designing, publishing brochures, catalogues, identifying donors and stakeholders etc. Not all committee members would fit in many of these. They would be useful when it comes to conducting the projects and ensuring a common theme. However, some of these efforts are probably best left to the individual creative people.

THIN benefits from expanding the use of committees. We apply committees in every combination of scope, size, mission, authority and duration. These committees would build on the synergy of the Board Members, improve communication and buy-in, increased work (project) output, raise morale and provide a forum for personal development.

To achieve these benefits, THIN addresses both the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) and other unique issues. When we do, we shall have taken another major step towards an open organization culture.

Committees are used to:

o Create new ways to address opportunities, solve problems and improve administrative process;
o Corporations, coordination and communication, particularly among people from different functions;
o Commitment to a course of action
o Greater productivity.
o Better use of peoples skills and abilities;
o Personal development of committee members;
o Higher morale among committee members

BENEFITS OF COMMITTEES
o Increased productivity and more efficient use of resources
o People can work on multiple committees (teens) and support several programmes (projects)
o Everyone understands and contributes to the whole mission, through committee meetings.
o Committees are frequently able to produce better results through synergy then an individual working independently.
o All other things being equal, committees will complete programmes (projects), assignments as fast as, or faster than Managers, Executives and employees using traditional approach.


BUY-IN
Committee members buy-in into and support their group’s decisions because they participate in making them.

The decisions are the product of consensus approach on which everyone on the committee contributes ideas and opinions. The committee develops alternatives and selects the most desirable one that everyone can support.

In the traditional approach, the Manager or Executive makes a decision and announces to everyone who is affected. Support for this decision tends to be lower. There is often disagreement between the parties.

COMMUNICATION
When a committee makes a decision, members know about it immediately. The team meeting is the communication medium. When members leave committee meetings, they know what they are responsible for doing and how that ties into everyone else’s assignment.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
Another benefit of using committees is personal development. Committee members learn and develop skills in solving problems, listening, resolving conflicts and giving and receiving feedback. Committees provide people with opportunities to develop and demonstrate management and leadership skills.

COMMITTEE DIMENSIONS
Committees are not all alike. They are distinguished by five attributes:-
- Scope
- Size
- Mission
- Authority
- Duration

Scope
A committee scope refers to the span of its membership. A committee’s scope is narrow if its members come from a single programme/project or natural workgroup. If a committee draws members from across the organization, its scope is wider and it is referred to as a cross-functional committee.

Size
The optimum committee size is from six to eight members to be more effective, although a team of two to five people can often accomplish more than the same number of people working separately.

Mission
A committee describes its purpose, or what it is put in place to do.

Authority
The authority of a committee describes what it is empowered to do without approval.

Duration
Refers to the life span of a committee. It may be temporary or on-going and permanent.

COMMITTEE ROLES

Committee Structure
The most important role is that of a committee member; his commitment to the team and its mission.

This is measured by committee members showing up for meetings, carrying out assignments and observing the task and relationship process that they all agree to follow. When committee members lack commitment, the committee does not have a sense of urgency, other tasks will take priority over committee activities and the committee will miss milestones and completion dates. It will not be effective in accomplishing its mission.

Having something to contribute to the committee is also very important. For most members their contribution is their content or subject matter knowledge.

There are other things that committee members can provide besides content knowledge. They also have to contribute time to carry out committee assignments, such as conducting interviews, gathering information, analyzing data and preparing reports. In some situations it may even be helpful to have some committee members without content knowledge. They can visualize how things might be because they are not encumbered with the knowledge of how things are. These members do not know why they cannot do something and so proceed to do it.

Committee Chairperson
In most committees, one of the committee members becomes the chairperson. He/she may be appointed by the Board or may be selected by the team members. The job can be permanent assignment or may rotate periodically among the members. The chairman usually conducts the committee meetings and represents the committees or teams in the organization. The role of the chairperson is to facilitate the committee process, give the committee the latitude it needs not to tell people what to do.

Other committee members’ roles may include the scribe. The scribe is a member of the committee, usually selected by the committee members to record ideas and suggestions, keep minutes of the meetings and publish the team’s output. Since this is clerical activities, the scribe’s role may be rotated among the members.

However the fact that the scribe’s functions are not exciting and interesting does not mean the role is not important. Communicating committee progress and results keeps co-workers and the Board informed. Some committees identify requirements for other positions such as time-keeper or parliamentarian. There are no rules how committees divide responsibilities. The only objective is that each committee contributes to its mission and objectives.

Specialists
Committee members do not always have all the skills, experience, information or support they need. They may ask people outside to contribute. These people are referred as specialists. They may be Board members, suppliers, stakeholders, and employees of the organization or consultants. They meet with the team when needed and provide information or support, but they generally do not participate in the committee decision process.

Sponsor
There may be a need to identify a committee sponsor – also known as champions; they are typically managers or executives. Their role varies, but usually includes advocating the committees mission and recommendations, obtaining resources and help overcome internal barriers to get things done.

The sponsor is a committee resource but not the manager or leaders of the committee.

Facilitator
This is a role that is necessary for optimum committee performance the facilitations. This differs from the others in several ways: whereas the other roles focus primarily on the content dimension of committee performance, the facilitation focuses, exclusively on the two process dimensions, relationship and task. The facilitators job is to help the committee deal with relationship issues and to choose and use effectively the task process. The facilitator’s role differs in that it can be filled by someone outside the committee, by the committee chairperson or by committee members themselves.

The role of facilitator is important to committee success for several reasons. First, committees go through predictable stages of development as they form and begin to work toward their mission objective.

During these early stages, committees are not fully functional and at times may even be dysfunctional. Facilitators (trained) can recognize these stages and to intervene to help guide the committee through them.

Mature committees also experiences problems, project deadlines approach, old members leave, and new members join, assignments change, events beyond the committees control affect its performance. Sometimes committees just get stuck on a problem or issue. In these cases, they can benefit from the intervention of a facilitator (trained).

The facilitator’s job is to be completely impartial observer of the committee process, intervening only when needed to help the committee to help the committee reach its own decision and mission objectives. The chairperson conducts the meetings and the facilitator is present to provide assistance and support. If the facilitator observes relationship issues, he or she may intervene, providing guidance and direction. He may also provide a tool or technique needed to solve a particular problem. He may also help in preparation of meetings and provide feedback on the committees and chairpersons performance.

At times the committee may grow, passing through the normal committee development stage, becomes effective and productive. The need for an external facilitator diminishes.

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS (CSFs) FOR COMMITTEES

Successful committees don’t just happen. Several Critical Success Factors of CSFs are required in order for committees to achieve their mission objectives. Some of these factors are:

Mission: Committees need specific statement of their mission to provide direction and focus of their objectives. The committees mission should be congruent with the organization’s overall strategy, goals and objectives.

Staffing: Having the right people on the committee and giving them enough time to accomplish their mission. It is sometimes necessary to require other people to take part in a committee. This is often the case when specific people have the knowledge, experience and skills that a committee needs. In those instances where people do not want to be committee members, they can be designated as specialists and provide input to the team as it is needed.

Resources: Providing adequate resources for a committee is not to be overlooked. For committees with a broader scope and larger mission, resources include a budget for salaries, travel expenses, telephones, personal computers and fax machines. Funding for external resources such as consultants to design and conduct surveys, assist in benchmarking or facilitate committee meetings may also be necessary.

Boundaries: Committees need a clear understanding of what they can do and cannot do. Boundaries are the rules of the game. The mission statement, staffing and resources form some of the boundaries. Another boundary is also one of the team attributes: Its authority – In today’s environment it is probably better to be too bold than too timid.

Training: This is mainly from the practice and application of the skills gained. Training no additional tools can be provided. Adults learn best by doing. Never assume that training by itself will cause change. Important as it is, its only one of the Critical Success Factors.

Facilitation: Is the process of helping committees achieve their mission objectives through focus on their relationships and task processes. This is important and must be supported.

Support: Critical analysis of pet projects, processes, products, the organizations sacred cows (interest groups) in order to get a balanced and fair playground.

Measurements: Boundaries define the field of play; measurements tell the committee how the game will be scored. It is up to the Board to establish or approve measurements of success before the game begins and to ensure the measures tie into the committee’s performance and missions. Performance measurements show the committee how well it is meeting committee-operating objectives such as schedules or budgets. Mission measurements relate to the committees project.

A project improvement committee could measure the reduction in cycle time; a Finance committee could measure revenue growth, a project committee and measure project satisfaction results.

The Board is also responsible for making sure that every committee member’s performance is measured and evaluated against the mission objectives (tasks) and the results are communicated to the committee members.

So far, these are the general Critical Success Factors. In particular, committee members are responsible for the following:

Mission: Although the Board establishes the committee’s mission, the committee must understand it, believe it is important and accept it. One of the committee’s first steps is to renew its assigned mission. The committee members may want to restate the mission in their own words. If they do, they will need to review the restatement with the Board. If the Board has given them a broad mission, committee members may want to create a more narrow statement, to define the way they plan to go about accomplishing the mission or the specific area in which they plan to focus.

When the committee reviews its mission with the Board, committee members can also confirm their understanding of their resources, boundaries and measurements. Having a clear understanding and agreement up-front will help prevent the committee from going astray and will avoid disappointment and wasted time and effort later.

Committee Process: Is a second Critical Success Factor owned by the committee members and acts as a mainstay balance between content of their mission and the relationship and task process. One way that committees do this is by creating a list of operating guidelines and which may be referred to as a code of conduct or Aspired to Norms (ATN). They represent the behaviours that committee members agree will make them an effective team. A typical list of operating guidelines has from six t twelve items. It may show agreements to:

- Show respect for others
- Speak when no one else is talking
- Meet commitments to committee assignments.
- Focus on problems not people
- Follow accepted group problem-solving and decision process
- Be punctual
- Give assistance where necessary.

Flexibility: Flexibility begins with a willingness to ask penetrating questions, to challenge the way the organization has always done things and assumptions on which the organization always makes decisions. Flexibility includes thinking creatively to develop new approaches. If one approach to solving a problem, improving a process or turning around a competitive situation does not work, the flexible committee will try another one. Successful committees are willing “to think outside the box.”