{"id":2590,"date":"2026-11-09T14:26:24","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T14:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/big-cic.org.uk\/blog\/?p=2590"},"modified":"2026-11-09T19:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T19:12:16","slug":"when-good-decisions-dont-add-up-to-good-outcomes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/big-cic.org.uk\/blog\/when-good-decisions-dont-add-up-to-good-outcomes\/","title":{"rendered":"When Good Decisions Don’t Add Up to Good Outcomes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Good Decisions Don’t Add Up to Good Outcomes<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
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Recognising where integrated governance could make a difference, and exploring how to build the capability to make it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two BIG BoK Club sessions exploring how to recognise opportunities for integrated governance, establish what is needed and build an enduring organisational capability.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Good governance in individual areas does not always add up to good governance of the whole.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Imagine an organisation where every major initiative has an approved business case, an accountable sponsor and an established reporting process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet the organisation has committed to more work than its people can realistically deliver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or a business where individual functions are meeting their targets, but decisions made in one area are undermining important objectives elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the board receives regular financial, operational, risk and project reports, but still struggles to understand whether its most important organisational objectives are on track, what threatens their achievement and where intervention is needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These situations are not necessarily the result of poor management or inadequate governance within individual functions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They may reflect something more fundamental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organisation has governance arrangements, but they are not sufficiently connected to support decisions and accountability across the organisation as a whole.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That matters because organisations rarely achieve their objectives through the efforts of one function alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resources are shared. Decisions have consequences beyond the areas in which they are made. Operational commitments compete with investment in change. Product and service development must be reconciled with financial, operational and strategic priorities. Risks and opportunities do not respect organisational boundaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question is not simply whether individual governance processes work. It is whether the organisation has the collective capability to make informed decisions, reconcile competing demands, maintain accountability and achieve its objectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you recognise an opportunity for better integrated governance?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The need does not always announce itself as a governance problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n