Governance and Control

In order to deliver a successful transformation, you need a clear and robust governance structure. Successful governance requires having the right people, in the right roles, meeting regularly, reviewing the right information, and being empowered to make decisions quickly. In this week's episode, we explore why it's essential that everyone playing a role in your governance structure needs to be 100% clear on the purpose of their role, why you need to need to document the terms of reference for each of the decision-making groups within your structure, and why you should consider the thinking styles of the individuals involved.

Show Notes

Key takeaway: It’s essential that your executive steering committee, operational steering committee and design authority draw their members from across different functions and areas of the business. 

In this episode, Jason refers to two articles on puzzles and mysteries. The first written by Gregory Treverton in 2007 in the Smithsonian Magazine and describes the differences between puzzles and mysteries, and how to tackle them.  

Here’s a quote from that article:

“Puzzles can be solved; they have answers. But a mystery offers no such comfort. It poses a question that has no definitive answer because the answer is contingent; it depends on a future interaction of many factors, known and unknown. A mystery cannot be answered; it can only be framed, by identifying the critical factors and applying some sense of how they have interacted in the past and might interact in the future. A mystery is an attempt to define ambiguities.”

Read the original Smithsonian article here

The second article was again written in 2007 this time by Malcolm Gladwell and appeared in the New Yorker titled ‘Open Secrets’ in which Gladwell describes the difference neatly.

"The whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden was a puzzle with a definitive answer that was, at the time unsolved, because the US intelligence community didn’t have enough information.  In contrast, the pressing problem of the time was what should happen in Iraq after Saddam Hussein was removed, that was a mystery. There wasn’t a simple, factual answer. Mysteries require judgments and the assessment of uncertainty, and the hard part was not a lack of information but that there was too much. The CIA had a position on post-war Iraq, so did the Pentagon and the State Department, and Colin Powell and Dick Chaney, as did Fox News and MSNBC and CNN and on and on." 

Read Gladwell's New Yorker article here

Welcome to season two of the Underscore Transformation Podcast. We hope you enjoy our episode exploring the importance of governance and control during your business transformation. This season focuses on the Build phase of transformation and follows on directly from season one (Scoping). If you haven't already, we recommend you listen to episodes 2-11 of season one as we will refer back to these topics, and they are vital in building the foundation knowledge required to move into the next phase of transformation.

Season two will cover the following points:  
1. Resource your programme team
2. Build your future support model
3. Manage business change
4. Solution design
5. Get the best out of suppliers
6. Target Operating Model – detailed design
7. Integrations & Reporting
8. Data
9. Testing, testing, testing
10. Governance & control

We will soon be releasing our white paper on the above points, which will be available for download via our website.

If you'd like to be notified of when this becomes available, please contact us via email, or register your interest via our website.

We’re always looking for ways to improve our content and would love to hear your feedback. If you would like to join the conversation, please contact Jason West to join our WhatsApp group.

Follow us on social media: @UnderscoreComms, find us on LinkedIn, or get in touch via email at [e-mail]

Visit our website to find more content on transformation, project resourcing, and talent development. 

This episode was recorded and produced by Matt Gore of icon business media.

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