Governance and fun

Templates are one of the most tangible things of the governance. They are conceived as the interfaces to operate the system. There are many sorts of tools for collecting data and release information. The

Vision and fun

The people are still the most important resource of the project. However, a project cannot be manned by a bunch of persons who are sharing the same tools. Therefore, governance has to be conceived as the mean for “materializing” the vision. The target is the formation of a group through the coalescing of its members in a way that goes beyond the specific skills (i.e. including the management and the external stakeholders). Whatever is the shape of the target, communication is still the fundamental element. The ability to share thoughts (including emotions) can only be performed when a mutual respect of persons and roles are forming the ground used for building the common house called governance.

From this viewpoint, the idea of shipping some tasks (like retrospective – a k a “learned lessons”) with a bit of fun, introduces a big risk in tarnishing the basic respect of people. Jokes and laughs are a symptom of a relaxed environment. However, leaving this alone means to ignore the possibility of working in a Lord of the Flies environment. ABIDING BY THE RULES – AT ALL LEVELS (BTW, it is the first case of using capital letters in this site) reduces the risk of bullying behavior in almost all situations. Once the dam of mutual respect is broken, there is little room for saving anything for understanding the reality (e.g. how much have we done for demanding the money)

Rules and naivety

In some positions, especially for the sale people (who fetch the promise of money) the rules can be lived as straitjacket for an acrobat. However, the adoption of a double standard is a risk, when this behavior is not properly coded and addressed. Different ways to interpret the “Benefit” within the team and with the customer can create serious damages to the company image.

I took an easy shot against the Sale Department; however, the habit of “cooking” figures is extremely common for the project managers and developers. From my experience, the most common ingredient for every recipe is a sheer incompetence (starting from estimations to manging the financial aspects). Obviously, these kind of grubs tend to create indigestion and sometimes fatal outcomes.

Conclusion

The importance of a “good” governance goes beyond the skills and abilities of a single leader. Governance is logic for making a vision workable, and it lives in the daily effort of every person who belongs to a group.