No Good Joke Survives a Committee of Six

Velocity; the Seven New Laws for a World gone Digital, is an excellent book on business strategy by Ajaz Ahmed and Stefan Olander.  One of the ‘seven laws’ is this, no good joke survives a committee of six.  In the book the story is told of Tony Blair’s final speech as leader to the Labour Party Conference in 2006.  The day before the speech was to be given, Tony Blair’s wife, Cherie, was overhead making disparaging remarks about Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and leader in waiting of the country.  This gaffe featured on the TV news and was a potential banana skin on which Blair could trip.   Tony Blair handled the issue brilliantly in his speech by making a joke,  ‘At least I don’t have to worry about my wife running off with the bloke next door.’  (The Chancellor of the Exchequer lives at 11 Downing Street, next door to the Prime Minister at number 10.)  The unexpected joke was well received and totally defused the situation.  It was seen as an audacious piece of theatre.

The interesting lesson from the story is that the joke only survived in the speech because it was written by the speechwriter, Philip Collins, some 15 minutes before the start of the Blair’s performance. Collins believes that if he had thought of it earlier it would likely have been eliminated.  No good joke survives a committee of six.  Someone would have thought that it was too risky, in bad taste or unbecoming for a Prime Minister.

The point that Ahmed and Olander make in the book is that every new idea is like that joke and every management meeting is like a committee sitting in judgement on ideas.  Consensus decisions are often safe decisions that eliminate heretical ideas – like the kind of joke that Blair included in his speech.

Leaders should consult and listen to opinions but be prepared to trust their intuition and judgment.  They should not try to please everyone and offend no-one.  As they say in the book, ‘Give groupthink a rest.  Have the balls to make the calls.’