Staff Work

I remember a Demotivational poster that whose caption said,
"Committees: because no one is as dumb as all of us." That really isn't
true unless everyone is either grossly dumb or very unserious. In the
beginning, it always seems that way. No one is really sure what to do or
where to go, but when everyone sincerely tries to solve the problem, you
reach a point where everything clicks into place.
Everyone hates staff work. It is usually without thanks. Someone else
always gets the credit when it works. Usually, the get the blamed for
the failure when it doesn't, but blame makes a big splash and praise is
pin point accurate. Nothing could happen without staff work in an
organization as big as the Army, at any level. Some problems are just
too big for one person to grasp all together, at least not without the
risk of being disasterously wrong far too often.
That is probably why presidencies, quorums and committees in the
Church. Since we are supposed to study things out in our minds and then
ask if it is right, before getting a confirmation or denial, it helps to
have a thouroughly discussed, sometimes well argued, plan to present.
Usually, it will come out right, and when it doesn't, the right answer
can probably be found somewhere in the previous discussion.
Today, I got roped into some "it has to be done yesterday" staff work.
It wasn't much fun until the very end, when a rough, but recognizably
good, product suddenly materialized. It will take a few more days to
polish enough to sell it the General, and then the real work will start,
because we will have to build the thing we are only planning now, but it
felt good.