'Design by Committee'

It's Friday afternoon. What better time for a work place rant, or more accurately what better time to share some thoughts on collaborative design. Everyone knows the expression "Design by Committee", I recently got hit over the head by this concept when looking trough some old files at work and thought I'd share. On the left is a pirate ghost featured in "Science Pirates the Curse of Brownbeard" this character was changed several times from it's original design and was based off of an art style that was dictated by committee. This character, along with the games general art style, underwent changes and revisions for months and even years. The character on the right was made recreationally for a halloween project in about 2 hours (this included animation). I know that large scale projects require multiple designers, viewpoints, and approvals but, I have seen large scale projects fall apart when pulled into too many directions. So where is the middle ground between allowing individual expresion and meeting the needs of all in volved? Maybe some where in between these to images, hopefully skewing a bit more to the image on the right. =)