Governance accelerates through clarity

‘When governance is clear, the entire organization accelerates’ 

Governance often triggers resistance in organizations, says governance expert Faranak Taghavi of Capgemini Academy. The term is quickly associated with bureaucracy, control, and delays. Yet at its core, governance is something entirely different: professional decision-making. An interview about governance’s poor reputation and why this is far from justified. “Well-designed governance actually creates clarity, accelerates decision-making, and places ownership where the expertise lies.’ 

‘Without clear governance, adoption is vulnerable.’

Organizations want to make decisions faster, become more agile, and rely less on long chains of approval and endless alignment. In practice, however, the opposite often happens: more meetings, additional management layers, and rigid task lists that employees experience as meaningless.

Faranak Taghavi, an expert in governance and responsible for external learning solutions at Capgemini Academy, shares her perspective. Together with organizations, she develops learning journeys with a team of subject-matter experts and learning consultants, where strategy, roles, decision-making, and skills come together.

Time and again, she sees leaders trying to tightly organize ownership: professionalizing, controlling risks, and accelerating decision-making. Yet attention often shifts from providing direction to enforcing control. What starts as adding structure can end in micromanagement and become paralyzing.

How can something designed to accelerate so often result in delay?

What role does governance expertise play in the learning journeys of Capgemini Academy? 

‘Organizations often approach learning as a standalone intervention. A skill is missing, so a training is needed, that’s the general way of thinking. The focus is on content and capabilities, instead of on questions like: Where do these skills land within the organization? And: Will people actually have the mandate to make decisions based on the skills they learn?’

Are people, in fact, often not empowered?

‘I’ve seen IT projects where technically everything was in place, yet they were not widely perceived as successful. Often, the technology is solid, and people understand it. But in many cases processes, ownership, and decision-making are not clearly defined. People don’t know who decides what, who is able to steer, and who is accountable for results. That’s when a negative dynamic starts to emerge around the entire project.’

‘Without clear governance, adoption becomes fragile. Decisions stall, the same questions keep returning, and teams become dependent on escalation to get things done.’

‘Another consequence is that learning becomes optional. Because what is knowledge worth if you can’t apply it within the organization? In that sense, governance determines whether a learning journey has real impact, or remains a well-intended intervention.’

If governance is so important for organizational performance, why isn’t it addressed upfront? 

‘Governance has an image problem. It’s associated with bureaucracy and delay, while its purpose is to accelerate. Or employees see the type of agreements governance involves as restrictive.’

‘On top of that, the role of governance is underestimated. All attention goes to systems. People assume that once the technology is in place, you just need to document a few process agreements and you’re done. Governance then becomes an administrative exercise. One way or another, it’s seen as something to address later.’

Where does that negative reputation come from?

‘The bad rep governance gets is caused by responsibility being confused with control. Organizations tend to define responsibilities down to the task level. As if professionalism means prescribing every action. That removes ownership instead of strengthening it, with all the consequences that follow. Because that’s exactly when problems like excessive bureaucracy emerge.’

In other words, governance is blamed for the very problems it is meant to solve. What does it take to get it right?

‘Governance is about giving freedom where possible and providing direction where needed. You need to make explicit who decides what, who provides input, how escalation works, and which frameworks apply. Who decides on priorities, exceptions, risk acceptance, or scope changes? And when does something need to move to another level? When all of that is clear, you prevent duplication, delays, and endless alignment.’ 

That makes sense. But if we know what good governance looks like, what it leads to, and where it often goes wrong, why does it still fail in practice? 

‘First of all, setting up governance takes time, while the benefits are not immediately visible. This makes it easier to skip governance altogether.’

‘The second element is more fundamental and lies in organizational culture. In many places, the implicit message is: better no decision than a wrong decision. Or: escalating is safer than choosing yourself. You can formally design decision-making well, but if people don’t dare to decide, because they fear making mistakes or being held accountable, very little will happen. Decision rights then exist on paper, but not in behavior. And when that is the dominant behavior, no governance model will help.’

Can you offer practical guidance on how to shift such a culture?

‘Good governance ultimately requires a culture where people are encouraged to use their mandate. That means: giving trust, visibly standing behind team decisions, and accepting mistakes as part of learning.’

What else does good governance require from leaders?

‘I mentioned earlier that setting up governance takes time without immediately delivering tangible results. That’s key: as a leader, you have to accept that building effective governance requires serious effort upfront. You need to have transparent conversations, make roles explicit, and organize decision-making clearly. Governance doesn’t accelerate because of structure, but because of clarity.’

‘This might be the hardest part: governance forces you to honestly look at how people actually operate. Not how you designed it on paper, but how it works in practice. That requires self-reflection from both leaders and teams.’

If you add everthing up, what ultimately makes governance truly effective and what does it require from organizations that want it to work sustainably?

‘Good governance is not a one-time setup, but a continuous process. It requires trust, while continuously testing whether the governance model works. It involves designing governance top-down, and also evaluating it bottom-up. Where do people get stuck, where are decisions not made, and where do bottlenecks arise?’

‘This means investing in learning initiatives is critical. Not just in technical skills or process knowledge, but definitely in soft skills as well. Decision-making, and collaboration are vital for success. And in adoption: how do you apply new skills in practice, how do you support people in taking responsibility, and how do you guide teams through that change?’

‘Good governance requires having the right people in the right positions, while coaching and supporting them, and involving the entire organization in the behaviors that come with it. It’s not a change on paper, but a change in how people collaborate, make decisions, and experience ownership. Only then does governance become an enabler of agility and sustainable impact.’

Curious how we support organizations in governance and learning?