A committee takes hours to put into minutes what can be done in seconds.

The quip satirizes the inefficiency that can arise when decisions are routed through committees. It contrasts the speed of individual action (“seconds”) with the slow, process-heavy nature of group deliberation (“hours”), and adds a second jab: committees often compress those hours into brief “minutes” (meeting minutes), implying that much time is spent to produce a small, sometimes underwhelming outcome. The line reflects a common managerial critique of bureaucracy—how diffusion of responsibility, the need for consensus, and procedural formalities can impede timely action. As a maxim, it implicitly advocates for clear ownership, streamlined decision-making, and using committees selectively for problems that truly require collective judgment.