Drive Results – With or Without Committees

My newsletter on culture committees stirred up more reaction than anything I have written in months. Not because people agree on the answer, but because they are wrestling with the same tension. Committees can be powerful, and they can also stall real progress when they are asked to carry responsibility without authority or to communicate values that are not reinforced by systems. This week’s edition of This Week in Culture is about what comes next. Research from Harvard Business Review, Gallup, and MIT Sloan keeps pointing to the same conclusion. Culture does not move because people meet more often. It moves when decision rights, metrics, leadership routines, and rewards are aligned with what the organization says it believes. Committees matter most when they function as learning systems that surface truth, reveal friction, and help leaders redesign how work actually gets done.