Daily Inspiration Quote by Katharine Whitehorn

The line skewers committees by praising the only kind that ever seems to work: the one staffed by people who would rather be doing almost anything else. Whitehorn, a journalist with a sharp eye for domestic power and institutional silliness, isn’t romanticizing busyness for its own sake. She’s pointing at an incentive structure. The “slightest use” committee is useful precisely because its members treat meetings as a cost, not a lifestyle.

The intent is quietly radical: competence often looks like impatience. People with real responsibilities arrive with a built-in discipline - they read the papers, push decisions, resist digressions - because time is scarce and they can’t afford the soft pleasures of endless process. Whitehorn’s subtext is that a lot of committee culture isn’t about solving problems; it’s about performing importance. If you have nothing urgent waiting on your desk, the meeting becomes the work, and “discussion” becomes a form of self-preservation.

It also takes a sly swing at how institutions select for the wrong traits. The eager joiner, the habitual attendee, the person with calendar space to burn: these can be perfectly pleasant people, but they often produce what committees are infamous for - drift, diffusion of responsibility, the comfort of “we’ll circle back.” Whitehorn’s punchline is that the best governance is reluctant governance. Usefulness, in her view, depends on members who would like the committee to end because they actually have things to do.