Frans van Houten Quotes

Sloths move at the speed of congressional debate but with greater deliberation and less noise.

Muddle is the extra unknown personality in any committee.

If in the first group of people who have gathered, unanimity is not achieved, new people shall be added, after which a group equal in number to the Greatest Name or fewer or greater shall be chosen from their midst by lots; whereupon the consultation shall be renewed; whatever is the result shall be obeyed. If the second time opinions again differ, repeat the process a third time. This time obey the majority vote.

A swarm finds the solution people best agree upon. It optimizes collective support, whereas a poll tells us how we disagree.

why are we so monumentally slow?

The only good thing ever done by a committee was the King James version.

Democracy in the studio is overrated. What you wind up getting is compromise on everybody's part, which means that nobody has their way, and that means nobody wins, including the fans.

A camel is a horse designed by committee.

When I need things to happen, I need them to happen now, you know. I don't want to be having a meeting about a meeting about a meeting, which is what can happen in Britain.

Consensus isn't just about agreement. It's about changing things around: You get a proposal, you work something out, people foresee problems, you do creative synthesis. At the end of it, you come up with something that everyone thinks is okay. Most people like it, and nobody hates it.

They sit there in committees day after day, And they each put in a color and it comes out gray. And we all have heard the saying, which is true as well as witty, That a camel is a horse that was designed by a committee.

There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either.

The compromise will always be more expensive than either of the suggestions it is compromising.

We do have a two against one rule. If two sisters feel very strongly about a design or trend we want to try, we go for it.

The problem with Microsoft is that it's so committee-driven and slow.

Too many problem-solving sessions become battlegrounds where decisions are made based on power rather than intelligence.

No one writes as slowly as I do, I'm convinced. It's so hard for me. I learn slowly; I make decisions at a snail's pace.

Settle all things, both great and small, by consultation. Without prior consultation, take no important step.

A conference is a gathering of important people who singly can do nothing, but together can decide that nothing can be done.

The individual is foolish; the multitude, for the moment is foolish, when they act without deliberation; but the species is wise, and when time is given to it, as a species it always acts right.

Take ye counsel together in all matters, inasmuch as consultation is the lamp of guidance which leadeth the way, and is the bestower of understanding.

If everyone in the party has to agree on everything, that’s going to be a very small party.

Obama has been deliberative to a fault and an inveterate seeker of the middle ground.

Parties think slowly.

I'm going to do what is best for the caucus.