{"id":2065,"date":"2025-11-20T14:03:28","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T14:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/big-cic.org.uk\/blog\/?p=2065"},"modified":"2025-12-01T11:21:45","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T11:21:45","slug":"inspiring-grc-professionals-into-a-role-in-strategy-delivery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/big-cic.org.uk\/blog\/inspiring-grc-professionals-into-a-role-in-strategy-delivery\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspiring GRC professionals into a role in strategy delivery?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Strategy delivery and the curse of “don’t ask don’t tell” syndrome<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

3rd December 2025, 12.30 PM UK time<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many organisation boards receive performance reports, compliance-reports, risk-lists and dashboards. Yet when asked: \u201cDoes your board receive reliable information on risk linked to your mission-critical objectives?\u201d many cannot answer Yes. (see the blog – mission critical oversight gap<\/span><\/strong><\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This gap is driven not just by inadequate tools, but by a deeper pattern: what Tim Leech<\/a><\/strong><\/span> calls the \u201cDon\u2019t Tell \/ Don\u2019t Ask\u201d syndrome \u2014 where management avoids surfacing inconvenient truths and boards avoid asking the really hard questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are Human Beings<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Most people are not innately unwilling to be held accountable. What they resist is being held personally liable in systems where accountability is unclear, leaders are unpredictable, and surfacing problems carries more downside than upside. In those conditions, Don\u2019t Ask, Don\u2019t Tell becomes a rational survival behaviour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are human beings, and it is natural to avoid exposure, embarrassment, or blame. But when an organisation offers no safe or structured way to raise concerns, uncertainty or dissent, leaders and teams become trapped in a Don\u2019t Tell \/ Don\u2019t Ask cycle. Cultural issues that need to be surfaced stay buried because acknowledging them feels risky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can we be effective with strategy delivery – and focus on our mission critical objectives and the risk around them – if we are frightened of inconvenience or embarrassment – and have no safe way to surface problems?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Answer?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The answer is not to blame people for instinctive self-protection. The answer is to build an environment where it is safe and expected to surface what matters, so problems, risks and uncertainties can be addressed early rather than hidden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can we get past the emotional argument defending against personal liability to a rational argument for instilling fair accountability?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Explore how combining the frameworks of Business Integrated Governance (BIG) and Objective\u2011Centric Risk and Uncertainty Management (OCRUM) can transform governance from reactive compliance into proactive, objective-driven oversight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n