Most committees don’t avoid decisions because they’re lazy or incompetent. They avoid them because they want consensus, they don’t want conflict, and they keep hoping that if they wait long enough, everyone will come around. They won’t. And in the meantime, the issue gets bigger and harder to deal with. This episode covers both sides of the decision-making problem: why committees avoid making calls, and how to make good ones when they finally get there.
In This Episode
- Why committees keep having the same discussion without reaching a resolution — and what’s actually driving it
- The ceiling panel that fell during grand final celebrations — and what a sporting club learned about the cost of deferral
- Legitimate deferral versus avoidance: the one thing that separates them
- The five principles of good decision-making — the practical application of the legal duties covered in Episode 4
- Representatives: why you can’t be directed by your home committee about how to vote
- How to protect your committee when a decision goes wrong — and why documenting the process is your protection, not a perfect outcome
Free Download
A decision-making checklist from the Committee Companion — five questions, one page. Keep it handy at your meetings and run significant decisions through it before the vote. Download here.
Want to Go Further?
If your committee has been workshopping the same decision since forever, the Kates can help. Find out more at freshallsorts.com.au.
This Week’s Challenge
Is there a decision your committee keeps finding reasons not to make? Name it. At your next meeting, put it on the agenda with a specific commitment: either we decide at this meeting, or we set a deadline and name who’s responsible for the information we need. No more kicking that thorny issue down the road.
And next time you’re about to vote on something significant, run it through the five principles first. The checklist in the show notes is a one-page version you can keep with your meeting papers.
Got a Question for the Kates?
Use the contact form at thecommitteeroom.com.au. Someone else will be glad you asked.
About Your Hosts
Kate Hartwig has spent forty years working in and around not-for-profit and membership organisations — as a CEO, director, and independent consultant. Her Committee Companion is a head start on good governance with checklists, frameworks and exemplars for committee members. katehartwig.com.au
Kate McPhee has three decades of hands-on experience helping small clubs and associations get more done with less stress. She is the author of Just a Tick, a plain-English governance guide for committees and boards. liquoriceallsorts.com.au
Together they offer governance health checks and practical support through Fresh Allsorts.
This podcast provides general information on best practice governance for small to medium not-for-profit associations. It is not legal advice.
Timestamps
00:04 — Decisions, decisions…
00:46 — Introducing the Kates and this episode on making decisions
01:31 — The first rule of decision-making — make decisions!
03:53 — Deferral, not avoidance
04:38 — Principles of good decision-making
05:00 — Principle 1 — Reasonable care
05:15 — Principle 2 — Good faith
05:44 — Principle 3 — Avoid influence from personal interests
06:12 — Principle 4 — Reasonable enquiry
06:58 — Principle 5 — Rational belief
07:48 — Peak body representatives
08:51 — How to protect your committee decisions
10:30 — This week’s challenge and next week’s episode
Next Episode
The decision’s been made. Now it needs to be recorded properly. Next episode, the Kates cover what goes in the minutes, what doesn’t, why the minute book is a legal record, and why ‘the committee discussed the matter’ is never good enough.
Resources & Links
🎙️ The Committee Room thecommitteeroom.com.au — episode archive, show notes, downloads and contact form
🍬 Fresh Allsorts freshallsorts.com.au — Governance Health Checks and practical support from both Kates
Kate Hartwig Consulting katehartwig.com.au — including the Committee Companion, a head start on good governance with checklists, frameworks and exemplars
Liquorice Allsorts Consulting liquoriceallsorts.com.au — including Just a Tick, Kate McPhee’s plain-English governance guide
Facebook: The Committee Room
LinkedIn: The Committee Room
You don’t need good luck if you’ve got good governance.
The Committee Room | thecommitteeroom.com.au