All I Need to Know About Governance I Learned from Parenting

When I was a kid, I used to dread the words from my Mom, “…go ask your Father…” or worse yet, “…you just wait till your Father gets home!” The bigger the ask, or the bigger the infraction, the more likely Dad would get involved. This is the childhood analog of multi-level governance and escalation.

As a parent, we had those same conversations with our kids. We had those “fierce conversations” too. We had a TRUSTING RELATIONSHIP with our kids. We had TRANSPARENT COMMUNICATION. Conversations about puberty, drugs, alcohol, love, sex, and birth control; tough conversations to have with your kids. Everyone feels a little awkward and uncomfortable.

“Be home by 11” is a contract with consequences. If you are going to be late CALL US. “I’m going to Jimmy’s house” or “I’m heading to the store, need anything?” Simple communication, transparency, and accountability principles already ingrained as second nature to many of us in our youth.

If you are lucky, you had these positive experiences and you already know everything you need to know about governance at its core.

The big WHY

In my early years as a project manager, the word governance used to intimidate me. Mostly because I did not understand what it was. It sounded very official and regimented like some kind of war tribunal and I was just a lowly project manager. In hindsight, I was already doing basic governance for most of my software development project management career without realizing it.

My first job as a consultant back in the early 90’s required me to do an engagement report with each contact with the client. My boss explained the big WHY, that has stuck with me since: if you write up the engagement report BEFORE you leave the client site, and get a signature, there should be no unpleasant surprises when the invoices eventually were received. He was right; I never had a disputed invoice. Basic governance lessons learned – timely, transparent communication and accountability.

What the Heck IS Governance?

In a word, it is TRUST. Trust that the engaged parties will enter a mutually agreeable RELATIONSHIP and all act in good faith. The intent is to mutually, and proactively, manage risk and avoid unpleasant surprises.

Let’s look at some common definitions borrowed from the web:

·        In its most abstract sense, governance is a theoretical concept referring to the actions and processes by which stable practices and organizations arise and persist

·        Good governance has 8 major characteristics. It is participatory, consensus oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive and follows the rule of law.

Keep it Simple

In my experience over the years, governance has a few core concepts that do a good job of heading off potential risks and avoiding unpleasant surprises:

•  Frequent, honest, timely, and bidirectional COMMUNICATION
• TRUST and confidence earned thru transparency and fairness
• ANTICIPATION and predictability to avoid unpleasant surprises
• Empowered, ACCOUNTABLE, and responsive stakeholders

Kick it Upstairs

There are various models that usually incorporate multiple tiers of seniority that generally align with relative size of the project and level of risk. Simply put, bigger project = more risk = more levels of governance. The process is the same, only the magnitude of the potential issues increases, and titles have more TLA’s that begin with V’s or C’s as you go up the chain.

Multi-level governance provides an established escalation path. It is a form of disaster planning. If there is a major fire in your house knowing the three numbers 9-1-1 can save lives. Possessing and knowing where household fire extinguishers are can save a lot of last-minute scrambling to put out a toaster fire without calling 9-1-1. Knowing in advance who to call and what the appropriate response should be when an event requires escalation is a key benefit of good governance.

Easy to Understand, Difficult to Master

In actual practice this simply amounts to a few people sitting around a table being good stewards of time and money. Things will inevitably happen on both sides of the table that have an impact to budget, scope, or schedule. These people are typically experienced and empowered problem solvers that have deep insights that allow them to also be PROBLEM FINDERS, anticipating risk and planning mitigations accordingly.

When issues arise whether in real time or anticipated, the governance team does some level of analysis, and then negotiates a resolution.

Simple, right? Yet, across the software implementation domain we constantly see instances where governance either did not exist or was ineffective for some reason. The telltale sign of a colossal governance failure is when legal teams and major concessions enter the discussion with the V’s and C’s. Precursor signs are when either side of the table goes dark or you see passive aggressive behavior creeping in.

Common sense tells you that it doesn’t have to come to this extreme and potentially dramatic conclusion. If it sounds so easy, why does it fail?

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Now that we know what it is and what model governance can look like, lets look at some common causes of failure and some simple things we can do to be successful.

Sometimes these reasons may be due to the customer. If they don’t embrace the principle of governance or allow it to function as intended, it can make the relationship, and chances for a successful outcome much more challenging.

A world class recipe does no good if you don’t have all the ingredients. I’ve heard accounts where the software vendor leads and management did not have direct access to the client leadership. All communication was fed to the client project manager and they presumably represented the dev team in good faith – or not. This forces the delivery team and vendor leadership into taking a brute force approach that requires a lot of extra time and energy and INCREASES RISK.

On the other hand, governance at most of my accounts was built on SIMPLE daily contact, scheduled and many times, ad-hoc. There were surprises to be sure. Governance doesn’t guarantee there won’t be any surprises. Most situations can be resolved to mutual benefit given enough TIME to react. Have those conversations up front, even if some of those make you uncomfortable.

The old saying goes “pay me now or pay me MORE later”, and in my experience this is an immutable truth. Buy yourself TIME. Be PROACTIVE. It’s great to be a problem solver, but you also need to be a PROBLEM FINDER. Don’t wait until disaster strikes to act. Get in front of it and stay in front of it. Situations SNOWBALL rapidly; in extreme cases, hours or minutes can make a huge difference in the outcome. See something, say something – period.

Honeymoon in Vegas

Just because a multi-level governance model exists does not mean it must be implemented in a big-bang fashion with pomp and circumstance where all the execs come together in a big love fest. Remember, ALL of this is BUILT on TRUST. TRUST that is EARNED over TIME. TRUST that is built INCREMENTALLY. Think of dating and marriage. In theory anyway, good marriages start with building a TRUSTING RELATIONSHIP in a gradual courtship. Vegas marriages are not good examples of building trusting relationships.

Long Distance Relationships

Note that this is not exclusive to vendor – client relationships. My company has offshore development teams in Poland and India. I try to meet with the leads daily. This is a challenge since I am on the West coast of the U.S. It means early mornings or late nights for me. I’ve seen what happens when communication breaks down internally in this scenario and it’s not pretty.

The best RACI chart in the world has hidden ambiguities and it is just a matter of time before the phrase “…oh, I thought YOU were going to do it…” comes into the conversation. I was once guilty of this and paid the price. I’ve been party to arbitrating disputes as a result of this. Don’t let it happen to you. Lesson learned: get up an hour early or have a quick after dinner touch point with the offshore team. Pay me now or pay me more later.

Fool me once…

It is possible, if not PROBABLE, that your client was burned by vendors in the past. It is possible they have a bad taste in their mouth from poorly implemented governance. Given these scenarios it’s easy to understand why some clients are hesitant to engage with the vendor in governance. Nobody LIKES bad news. It may be a case where one party was deeply hurt in a previous marriage and is wary of being hurt again.

In these situations, it takes much more time and effort to REBUILD TRUST. This is where you can really leverage your superpower of EMPATHY. How would you feel in their shoes? Act accordingly. Do unto others as you would have them do.

Keep it Simple: More is Not Necessarily Better

Governance cannot be force fed. A complicated governance model that involves many people and is hard to understand has built in risks of its own. A group of 10 stakeholders has 45 potential communication channels. It’s just a matter of time before something falls through the cracks. Keep it SIMPLE – as much as is possible or warranted.

Trust is built one step at a time. DELIVER. Follow through in your commitments. Deliver AGAIN. Follow through AGAIN. Be PRESENT. Be a LEADER. COMMUNICATE early and often. Be TRANSPARENT. As one of my old VP’s liked to say, “we’re not cracking atoms here…”, this really is BASIC stuff.

Simple governance perfectly executed is better than a complex model that has multiple communication channels and failure points and is likely to fail under its own weight.

Don’t over complicate or overthink this. Remember, we are not cracking atoms.

Mork Calling Orson…

In the late 70’s there was a popular TV comedy called “Mork and Mindy”. In the 90’s there was another called “3rd Rock From the Sun”. Both featured aliens on earth that reported to intergalactic leaders in some ethereal communication.

When Mork had to call his imperial leader Orson, he would call out “Mork calling Orson, Mork calling Orson” and a booming disembodied voice would reply. Mork would typically engage in a frank discussion about human emotions or other things that he did not understand. Orson, in turn would counsel Mork in a Fatherly fashion.

In “3rd Rock From the Sun” one of the characters acted as a communicator and would go into a funny trance-like pose and announce “incoming from the big giant head!” when his imperious leader would call to check in.

Examples of art imitating life, these silly situations are simple illustrations of governance. When I would call my VP to report a problem of some sort, I would greet him with “Mork calling Orson”. Conversely, I made a ringtone on my phone that announced “incoming from the big giant head” every time he would call.

What’s the point?

Governance doesn’t have to be heavy and rigid and all pomp and circumstance drudgery. Governance is about PEOPLE and RELATIONSHIPS. That person sitting across the table from you has the same needs and desires as you. CONNECT with them. Develop a TRUSTING RELATIONSHIP.

Be HONEST. The TRUTH will set you free!

Nobody likes dreary, stuffy meetings. Be crisp, be PROACTIVE, be TRANSPARENT. Have some FUN! It’s not all about bad news. I think we can all appreciate those moments when a potential disaster was averted because of some careful planning. Celebrate those moments!

If you are not looking forward to your governance meetings, you probably aren’t doing it right.

Gotta go, my phone is ringing… “…incoming from the big giant head”