Direct, Plan and Improve: Governance, Change and Measurement
Direct, Plan and Improve covers direction and control: governance, strategy, portfolio and risk, organizational change management, measurement and continual improvement.
Governance and strategy
- Governance is how an organization is directed and controlled: evaluate, direct, monitor. The governing body is accountable; management is responsible for execution.
- Strategy management sets direction from internal and external analysis (PESTLE, SWOT); Mintzberg's four Ps - plan, pattern, position, perspective - describe how strategy actually forms.
- Portfolio management balances investment across products, services, programmes and projects.
Risk
Risk appetite, risk capacity and risk profile drive treatment: avoid, reduce, transfer, accept. Risk management is continuous and embedded in decisions, not a register refreshed once a year.
Organizational change management and measurement
OCM handles the human side: stakeholder engagement, communication, training, resistance and reinforcement. Measurement links critical success factors to KPIs, favours leading indicators, and drops metrics that no decision depends on.
Continual improvement
The continual improvement model: what is the vision; where are we now; where do we want to be; how do we get there; take action; did we get there; how do we keep momentum. Improvement work is prioritized in an improvement register.
Worked example
A new ITSM tool: governance sets the mandate and adoption targets; OCM segments stakeholders, recruits a champions network and runs training and weekly communication; measurement tracks adoption (leading) and average handling time (lagging); 30/60/90-day reviews feed the improvement register. Reasoning: each element answers a different question - legitimacy, adoption, evidence, adjustment.
Traps
Confusing governance with day-to-day management. Publishing KPIs with no CSF link. Treating OCM as a communications plan. Filing risks without owners or review dates.