How to arrive at the prettiest shade of grey.

I was up for a job and the Chairman of the Board was kind enough to write me a personal note to let me know I was not moving forward in the selection process. “I fought for you as an ‘out-of-the-box’ candidate, but was outvoted.”

I had to smile. Anytime a committee is set up to make a decision, they will end up with a compromise. Innately, change and new ideas are things that do not do well in groups.

Groups are inclusive. Groups make a lot of people feel like they’ve been heard and are invested. Groups can throw birthday parties, organize picnics and even generate a number of random concepts quickly. But groups are terrible places to innovate and terrible places for the Idea. You see, groups tend to gravitate to things they have seen or heard before.

The Idea takes a strong individual champion—a Steve Jobs, a Warren Buffet, a Richard Branson. A visionary-- not a group.

There has never been a statue made of a committee.

The Idea is a bold black or white. And committees are set up to choose the prettiest shade of grey.