Governance

Governance – Are you mediocre?

Too often we see governance in place yet it serves no real purpose other than a passive check on overall progress. It takes considerable senior management attention to feed the governance group - countless papers, status reports, and time spent socializing decisions ahead of the actual meeting. 

6 signs that governance is mediocre:

• An increasing number of delegates attend your governance forums
• A standing agenda focused heavily on discussing progress to date, schedule, milestones, deliverables, risks, issues with an occasional decision or special item
• Decisions taken to the governance group tend to be a rubber stamp
• The governance group rarely challenges what is presented and the meeting feels more like an information sharing session
• The governance meeting is scheduled for over an hour and rarely gets through the standing agenda
• The background papers and mandatory powerpoint deck (yawn!!) rarely get distributed a week ahead of the planned meeting

Sound familiar? If you find yourself in this reality then it is time to find your governance rhythm and move beyond mediocre.

Get some Governance rhythm

Regardless of the context there is an underlying “tempo” which can be used to set the rhythm for great governance. 

• For programs and projects this will be tied to milestones or key decision points (funding, etc..). 
• For organisations this will be tied to an annual calendar of key events which dictate decisions that need to be made (budget, capital investment, strategy, people, risk, etc..)