Change thrives where governance is driven by curiosity and learning from reflective practice and the governance processes are rigourous and effective.
To shape your governance processes and culture, consider the below points.
Building trust in relationships
Do you have the trust and support needed to guide your governance effectively?
The nature of discussions within governance
Think about what you want people to bring to decision makers and governance meetings. Here are some things to consider:
- Do you allow time during governance meetings to hear, discuss, and decide on the merits of an idea?
- Do you take time to discuss and agree on who is responsible for delivering change in the organisation?
- How do you communicate decisions?
- How do you explain how and why you made decisions?
- How do you help teams understand the priorities, challenges, resourcing constraints before submitting change ideas?
- How much do you rely on papers shared with governance groups and get little discussion before approval?
Embedded in a clear vision and purpose
How aware are teams of a clear vision and purpose for the organisation and its services? Strict governance rules sometimes exist to stop people from going in different directions.
Valuing outcomes over processes
How often do you review the way you approach governance? Asking why we govern this way on a regular basis is important. Considering new methods can help focus on results instead of depending on old or random ones.
It can be helpful to ask ourselves:
- who in the organisation should make the decision?
- who has the expertise to inform or make this decision?