04 January 2012 - It'll happen to everyone in university technology commercialization at some point (if you're talented): You'll be invited to serve on a committee that is revising a University policy or drafting a white paper for a group like the Council on Government Relations.
Of course, it is extra work, but it's also flattering that (a) the person organizing the committee thinks you're a thought leader in your field and (b) you name being attached to the project will add credibility to the whole endeavor. So, you agree and begin your first foray into the wonderful world of "writing by committee" which is not too dissimilar to group work that we had to do in college or graduate school. Remember how fun that was?
Having been on a number of such committees, it's worth sharing the lessons I've learned (mostly the hard way).
1) All IN or all OUT
Don't agree to be on the committee unless you have the time to contribute in a meaningful way. Don't just sit there in the corner of the room and take notes! As with any work-product coming from a committee, compromise is necessary to reach consensus among the group. But, when the final report/draft/white-paper/policy comes out, it will have your name on it (unless you resign the committee in disgust). Your name appearing on the document means that you've publicly approved the document and that kinda sucks if you weren't THAT involved in the process.
2) Maintain your commitment
Perhaps the only worse "crime" than agreeing to serve on a committee and then not doing much work is to initially be very involved and then decreasing your commitment as time passes. It's easy to do. Sometimes these committees can exist for years before their work product comes out and you might just get too busy. Or...many times these committees are poorly organized and lack a true "Chairperson" or it might seem fair to pass the baton among the group and treat it like a relay race ("I'll work on this draft since you did the last one".) When you decrease your commitment over time, you will still be identified as a "chief architect" of the work product, but will have had minimal input on the final form of that work product. That's kinda dumb.
3) Beware of politics
The greatest abuse of committees is when a person in power knows what they WANT to do, but don't want to be accountable for unilaterally implementing an unpopular decision. So....they form a committee, steer the committee towards the desired end and then claim they are blameless for the outcome because "the committee has spoken" and the committee is made up of smart people like YOU. When faced with this scenario, see Advice Item #1 above. You need to decide whether you CAN and are ABLE TO effect the changes on the policy outcome that someone desires. If you can't, you might be better off missing a few of the meetings and being able to tell people, "Yeah, I guess I was nominally on the committee, but I think I missed half of the meetings and other people did most of the work. We should really thank them for their service!"
Now, there are many tremendous things about committees. They offer an chance for a melting pot of diverse ideas and provide opportunities to interact with (and impress) people outside of the normal technology commercialization sphere. So, no one should ever have a personal "no committees" policy. But, it is worth being aware of the potential pitfalls before agreeing to serve.
*Articles are reproduced with permission from Dean Stell, the owner of Technologycommercialization.blogspot.com
