Skip to main content

Rule of Law

Image
By
Too often I encounter learners who struggle with the concept of governance. This idea does not need to be difficult to understand nor to implement. The idea of governance is based on an older idea known as "rule of law". This idea arose in the Enlightenment and has driven modern civilized society ever since. The understanding of the rule of law is that everyone (people and businesses) is subject to rules and regulations that keep mankind from descending into chaos and anarchy. Governance is simply the modern terminology for this concept. Other terms we use in this same sense are "management" and "control".

Governance at its heart has two basic forms. The first is Governance ("Big G"). This is the type of governance whereby established ruling entities (governments and/or lawmakers and/or courts) create rules, regulations and policies (statements of intention or expectation) to keep us all from going crazy and destroying each other. We experience "Big G" governance in the form of laws such as Sarbanes-Oxley, privacy laws and even traffic laws.

The second form is governance ("Little g"). This form is the more general idea whereby we (individuals and organizations) agree to abide by a set of boundaries and behaviors to ensure sanity and success of both organizations and individuals.

"Little g" governance has four basic aspects:

·     Accountability: the aspect of governance where levels of authority duty are tied to roles and processes and we hold individuals and organizations to established standards and expectations.

·     Transparency: the aspect of governance where expectations and intent (policies) are made clear to all and openness and honesty drive ethical behavior.

·     Predictability: the aspect of governance where standardization, consistency, repeatability, process and procedure drive work.

·     Participation: the aspect of governance where those being governed play a part or a role in their own governance.

A key aspect of both forms of governance is the willingness of individuals and organizations to abide by the terms and conditions established as part of control, management or governance. If individuals or organizations are unwilling to stay with the boundaries the system quickly begins to break down. However, the system of governance cannot be punitive or oppressive or exist for the sake of existing. Rather it must serve the greater good of keeping all working as part of successful organizations or societies. Governance must be flexible and adaptable to changes in the environment and adapt to the place and times. Governance must be subject to continual improvement just like services, technology and processes.

By taking a broader view of governance as serving bigger interests your organization and you can both benefit.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Four Service Characteristics

By
Recently I came across several articles by researchers and experts that laid out definitions and characteristics of services. ITIL provides us with a definition that can help drive the creation of value-laden services: A means of delivering value to customers by facilitating outcomes customers want to achieve without the ownership of specific costs and risks. An area that ITIL is not so clear is in terms of service characteristics. Several researchers and experts put forth that services have four basic characteristics (IHIP): Intangibility—Services are the results of actions not things. They have no physical presence and represent a logical set of elements. One way to think of service is “work done for others.”  Heterogeneity—Also known as “variability”; services are unique items because of the mechanisms used to deliver services, which is people. Because the people element adds variability, the service is variable. This holds true, especially for the value proposition—not eve...
Post a Comment
Read more

What Is A Service Offering?

By
The ITIL 4 Best Practice Guidance defines a “Service Offering” as a description of one or more services designed to address the needs of a target customer or group.   As a service provider, we can’t stop there!   We must know what the contracts of our service offering are and be able to put them into context as required by the customer.     Let’s explore the three elements that comprise a Service Offering. A “Service Offering” may include:     Goods, Access to Resources, and Service Actions 1. Goods – When we think of “Goods” within a service offering these are the items where ownership is transferred to the consumer and the consumer takes responsibility for the future use of these goods.   Example of goods that are being provided in the offering – If this is a hotel service then toiletries or chocolates are yours to take with you.   You the consumer own these and they are yours to take with you.      ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The New Four Ps of Service Management

By
By Donna Knapp For years, people , process , and technology (PPT) was a widely recognized framework for balancing and integrating the components needed to achieve optimal performance and outcomes. In the ITIL v3 Service Design publication, this framework was expanded to the four Ps: people , processes , products , and partners . ITIL 4 has further expanded and evolved this framework to the four dimensions of service management. These four dimensions are collectively critical to the effective and efficient facilitation of value for customers and other stakeholders in the form of products and services. The four dimensions of service management are: Organizations and people Information and technology Partners and suppliers Value streams and processes. These four dimensions represent perspectives which are relevant to the whole service value system (SVS), including the entirety of the service value chain and all ITIL practices. Each ITIL practice is a set of organizational resources base...
Post a Comment
Read more