A happy, smiling light-skinned woman with light brown hair is wearing a bathing suit with a lei and has a flower tucked behind her ear. She's seated at a shady poolside table with a laptop open in front of her, along with a dish of fruit and a few beverages.

You don’t need committees if you work with talent pools instead

ByBecky McCray

Kathryn Witherington says the Idea Friendly Method has rewritten her perfectionist brain! She’s working on an affordable housing project in Walla Walla, Washington.

Lately, she’s been trying to rethink the way people can contribute to their organization without being expected to join a committee or become a formal member.

Kathryn said she recently met a person who volunteered their talent with legal titles and property transfer issues. Sounds pretty handy for a housing project. That person can be helpful without serving on a committee full time, year round.

Why do we act like the committee meetings are the important part? It’s the way you choose to contribute your talent that’s important.

I said, let’s put that person in a talent pool instead of on a committee.

We both loved this image! Kathryn and I started riffing on how we could use the idea of talent pools:

Don’t just rename “committees” to “talent pools” without changing the whole way they work. Committees are formed and hang around, at least for a year or maybe forever. They’re always meeting, someone needs to take notes and write up minutes, and someone gets to be in charge.

A talent pool could form at any time, for any length of time as needed. You don’t call a meeting of the talent pool; you call on people from the talent pool as needed.

Swimming pools sometimes have individual swimmers in lanes, and sometimes they have teams like with water polo. Your talent pool may have one person who works on their own or several folks who work in a team. Team members may change over time, whether a year is up or not.

And people at a pool might be a pool party! There you go. That’s the theme for your next board retreat or work session: pool party. Have fun!

Photo courtesy of Sheila Scarborough, who was happily working poolside in Kauai.