‘I don’t know anything about IT, I simply don’t understand it.’ Sadly this is still accepted language for a CEO in the boardroom. Often you can hear them think: ‘And I’d rather have nothing to do with it.’ Nevertheless, important decisions about IT are made there. In the boardroom. Which direction are we heading in? What is our strategic intent? How can we best deploy our people? Where do our products need IT support?

How to establish effective governance step by step? Read it in our whitepaper here

In order to streamline this process, we at Cycle to Accelerate recommend the establishment of an IT governance board, to better consider the relevant decisions. But still the danger lurks that a boardroom jumps on any hype train that comes along because the knowledge and craftsmanship of IT is not always fully appreciated. And that’s putting it mildly.

By jumping from hype to hype an enterprise misses an important opportunity to tell a story that can get people on the same page and get them enthusiastic, and in the narrative way bring them into a state of flow.

What such a board needs is vision! That is why we at Cycle to Accelerate advocate that from now on we make our decisions with VISION®. An abbreviation in which each letter has its own special meaning.

V = Viable

We must define goals we have the ability to work towards, moving in the direction of our strategic intention to end up as close to our vision as possible. Leaders rise up around these goals and as the goals change so do the leaders. Governance’s function is to support the move forward, never to stifle it. As the enterprise learns and evolves, so must its governance.

I = Inspiring

To go further together we must inspire. We must be fully committed. We must involve everyone within the enterprise, using storytelling to inspire great things to emerge. By setting goals we all deeply feel are worth pursuing, we will achieve those ‘moonshots’, collectively swarm-moving forwards.

S = Sustainable

Achieving positive impact must not be seen as a one-directional effort to achieve a single endpoint. Instead, we aim for a continuous transformation and learning movement. Whilst moving forward, we sustain our momentum by continuously removing or reducing limiting constraints and adjusting enabling constraints to make sure we keep moving in the right direction.

I = Inclusive

We must not exclude anyone but work all together as a swarm. Collectively we work towards a better world we all benefit from together.

O = Overarching

Our real goals are not small tweaks or local optimisations. We aim for broad-sweeping and integral change. Our intent is to forge new paths forward, breaking free from a past that holds us back.

N = Non-negotiable

While the way we achieve our goals is a learning journey with constant adaptation and evolving wisdom, the goals we set must not be compromised on. They form the core direction guiding our every move and decision.

You want to know more on governing? Download our white paper about governance.