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25Death of a CommitteeRobert HallidayHence it is necessary for a prince wishing to hold his own toknow how to do wrong, and to make use of it or not accordingto necessity. 1 (Machiavelli, 1513).Five years ago the chief executive officer decreed that our hospital should have anInternet as well as intranet presence to position the hospital as a leader in informationtechnology (IT). As a result of this decree, the director of IT formed a Web servicescommittee to oversee the development of these services. The initial efforts in thisdirection were beset with conflict, which resulted in the sudden resignation of thecommittee chair and, shortly thereafter, the exit of the Webmaster from the organization.Despite the significant impact of this false start on the remaining committeemembers, the process was resurrected, and a successful, functional group hassubsequently overseen the implementation of Web services according to the originalintention.The sudden demise of the Web services committee illustrates a number of errors inplanning that enhanced the likelihood of conflict developing and ensured that therewould be little hope of satisfactory resolution once such difficulties were encountered.In order to describe the events and dynamics, it is useful to document the participants,the process for their selection, and the brief they were given at the group’sinception.The PlayersInvitations to serve on the committee were issued by a procedure similar to that usedby most committees within the organization. Representatives were selected by the keystakeholders to represent the interests of particular groups. The intent was to create arelatively large, but hopefully inclusive, group able to articulate the concerns that mightarise at a relatively early stage of development.The problem with this approach is that it frequently fails to harness individualswith expertise. Committee members tend to be chosen according to rank ratherthan skill, and the formation of this committee was no exception. Consequently, themembership was strikingly similar to that of many other committees and lackedindividuals with awareness or skill in IT other than the representatives from the ITdepartment.233