That’s really the question we need to answer when we’re looking to identify the decisions we associate with any individual owner in our complex web of organizational governance. But, like so many other things, we often don’t ask the right question, or, people’s default psychological tendencies make it hard for themselves to know the difference.
And if they don’t know what’s really important to them and what isn’t, then it’s going to be damn-near impossible for us to sort it out—no matter what tools we’re carrying in our super-security-hero utility belt.
If you’re 10 years old, and your mother or grandmother – or even your dad – is in the kitchen about to make some pasta sauce, and they say to you:
“Hey, can you jump on your bike and run down to the corner shop and buy me some tomatoes so I can finish this sauce?”
There are some decisions you need to make if you’re going to successfully deliver your mission. One of the first ones is whether or not you believe you understand the situation well enough to ask more questions. Maybe this happens before, or maybe you’re pretty clear what the end result is going to be because, well…they told you. They were making a quick pasta sauce for a half-dozen people arriving at your house unexpectedly in about an hour.
Based on that information, we’re talking about a decision set in styrofoam. It doesn’t really matter what kind the tomatoes are going to be, but they’d better be in a can and ready to go. There’s no way you would have time to properly reduce fresh tomatoes in that amount of time.
However, if the request was related to a salad, things might be a bit more concrete. Like if it’s a Caprese salad, then those tomatoes better be so ripe, plump and juicy they you can taste them with your fingers—and, depending on the chef, there’s bound to be some specific types they require based on their own personal presentation style.
Those differences in the nature of the decision and who makes them are absolutely critical to understand when you’re talking about understanding the governance decisions you encounter every day…
…and no, I don’t care if they’re decisions about governing the firm as a whole,
…whether they’re about the choices any individual business unit leader has to deliver their own objectives,
…or whether they’re about the decisions about security in your organization.
Fundamentally, you can’t really understand governance of anything until you understand the essential elements involved, and they just might not be the ones you think they are.
Once you understand which decisions are ground into the granite of the organizational purpose and which ones are written in blue ink on your disposable styrofoam take-away coffee, you’re actually going to have a much better chance of doing your job in building a more effective security program.
The question is: how much do you know, and how much more effective would you like to be?
Well…neither of those are questions I can answer. All I can do with the upcoming December issue of the print Security Sanity™ newsletter is give you the tools you need to untangle, classify and confidently communicate any governance relationship you will need to understand in delivering security in your organization.
But, if you want the low-down on how to do it, you’re running out of time. Because the deadline for subscribing to make sure you get this issue is rolling down the highway at you pretty fast, and I wouldn’t want you to be the deer in the headlights when it gets here.
To avoid that grisly fate, go here and subscribe before the end of the week:
Stay safe,
ast
—
Andrew S. Townley
Archistry Chief Executive
