Capability Conversation – Governance

Governance

Govern for Value, Flow, Learning, and Agency 

What this capability means: Create decision rights, boundaries, responsibilities, evidence expectations, escalation paths, and change mechanisms that protect stakeholder value and integrity while enabling local judgment, learning, and agency. 

Working well when...

  1. Decision rights and boundaries are explicit at the level where interdependence exists.
  2. Governance asks for evidence and outcomes rather than ritual compliance alone.
  3. Local adaptation is allowed within sharedpurpose, constraints, and interfaces. 
  4. Rules and Current Operating Models can change when evidence contradicts them.

First-pass conversation

  • What decisions require shared governance, and which should remain local? 
  • What value, risk, constraint, or dependency justifies the control? 
  • Who can change the rule or Current Operating Model? 
  • What evidence shows the governance is helping rather than creating delay? 
  • How are conflicts, exceptions, and harmful effects reviewed? 

Warning signs to discuss

  • Governance meansapproval layers, status reporting, or framework enforcement. 
  • Local autonomy ignores cross-system effects.
  • Standards persist after theirobjective is lost. 
  • People lack authority to act on evidence or improve the system.

Facilitator reminder

Related areas: Strategy, Portfolio Alignment, Candor, Inquiry & Safety, Managing Uncertainty