The Churchill Series – Feb. 16, 2007

(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

I’m sure more than once in your life you’ve done what you’re about to see Churchill do: pointed out how committees charged with a task often wind up doing nothing or make matters worse.

It’s 1912. He’s thirty-eight and First Lord of the Admiralty. He prepares a memorandum for the Sea Lords regarding the need for the Admiralty to respond quickly and decisively to threats posed to British interests by the fast growing German navy. He says in part:

There is one epicycle of action which is important to avoid, viz ---

recognition of an evil;
resolve to deal with it;
appointment of a committee to examine it and discover the remedy;
formulation of the remedy;
decision to adopt the remedy;
consultation with various persons who raise objections;
decision to defer to their objections;
decision to delay application of the remedy;
decision to forget all about the remedy and put up with the evil

Well, there you go. He had it, didn't he?

Now without any committee involvement, I’ve made three decisions:

1) To say thank you to those of you who’ve recently commented. I appreciated your words.

2) To wish you all a nice weekend and tell you I hope you’re back on Monday. (which will really be Tuesday)

3) To end this post.
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The memorandum excerpt is found on pgs. 49-50 of Steven F. Hayward's Churchill on Leadership: Executive Success in the Face of Adversity.