Governance shapes how decisions flow — cleanly, slowly, or not at all.
In earlier articles, I argued that decisions are the metabolism of an organisation, the continuous flow of choices that reveal how the system actually behaves. But decisions do not move freely. They move through pathways that either enable flow or restrict it.
That set of pathways is governance.
Governance is often mistaken for committees, approvals, and documentation. In practice: Governance is the system that controls the flow of decisions, information, and authority.
When governance works, flow is clean and timely. When governance fails, flow becomes blocked, diverted, duplicated, or distorted.
This article examines how governance shapes coherence, and how to design governance that improves flow rather than slowing it.
Why Governance Matters: Flow Determines Reality
Most organisations do not struggle because their strategy is flawed. They struggle because the flow of decisions does not match the intent of the strategy.
Governance determines:
what moves
where it moves
how fast it moves
who it moves through
and what gets blocked, lost, or rerouted
Just like a poorly designed plumbing system, when governance is misaligned:
pressure builds in some areas
bypasses emerge in others
leaks appear (informal authority)
blockages develop (committees, risk cycles)
flow becomes unpredictable
Coherence requires predictable, reliable, purposeful flow.
The Five Ways Governance Shapes (or Breaks) Coherence
Aligned to the five coherence dimensions from Article 4:
Alignment - Flow follows purpose, not convenience
Good governance routes decisions and information toward mission-aligned outcomes.
Poor governance routes flow toward risk avoidance, bottlenecks, or local priorities.
Resonance - Flow moves cleanly across boundaries
Weak governance creates flow turbulence: messages are delayed, altered, or lost.
Strong governance ensures signal travels intact across silos.
Resilience - Flow absorbs pressure without rupture
If one part of the system is overloaded, resilient governance reroutes flow without collapse.
If governance is rigid, pressure breaks something downstream.
Drift - Flow slips outside intended pathways
Workarounds, informal approvals, escalations, and “quiet exceptions” show flow escaping the designed channels.
Redundancy - Flow loops unnecessarily
Multiple committees reviewing the same issue.
Repeated approvals for the same decision.
Duplicated processes with conflicting outcomes.
This is flow inefficiency, not human inefficiency.
Governance is therefore not administrative overhead, it is the engineering of organisational flow.
Why Committees Often Fail: They Interrupt Flow
Committees are intended to improve judgement by bringing perspectives together.
They fail when they interrupt flow instead of improving it.
Committees fail when they:
slow decisions that require speed
add review steps without adding value
force issues to travel further than they need
try to reach consensus instead of clarity
become risk-transfer mechanisms
require inputs they never use
Committees succeed when they:
process issues that genuinely require multi-source insight
compress flow (fewer steps, higher quality)
provide a clear outlet: a decision, not analysis
remove ambiguity from the system
Committees are flow-control devices. They must be positioned with intent, not tradition.
Why Delegations Fail: Mismatched Flow, Authority, and Information
Delegations look precise in policy. They dissolve in practice when:
authority is given without access to information
accountability is local but incentives are not
senior leaders override delegated calls
risk appetite is unclear
escalation is safer than action
teams lack the resources to exercise the delegation
Delegations only work when:
authority, information, capability, and incentive converge at the same point in the system.
Otherwise flow will either pool at the top or leak sideways.
Designing Governance for Adaptability (Flow Engineering)
The goal of governance is not control — it is flow discipline.
1. Just Enough Structure:
Too much structure restricts flow.
Too little structure causes flow to scatter.
Adaptive governance provides the minimum viable pathway for reliable movement.
2. Clear Pathways for Decisions, Exceptions, and Escalations
Most fragmentation occurs when flow hits ambiguous junctions.
Clarifying exception logic often reduces friction more than rewriting entire policies.
3. Governance Connected to Workflows, Not Org Charts
Flow follows work, not hierarchy.
Governance must be mapped to where work actually moves.
4. Real-Time Visibility of Flow Behaviour
Static diagrams and policies cannot keep pace with dynamic systems.
Flow must be monitored, measured, and corrected continuously.
This is where WorkLattice becomes essential.
How WorkLattice Tests Governance Load and Flow Dynamics
WorkLattice models governance using a GraphRAG organisational graph, representing:
committees
decision rights
authorisation paths
escalation routes
policy constraints
interdependencies
real-world flow patterns
It runs flow-based governance diagnostics:
Governance Load Capacity: When does a committee or leader become a bottleneck?
Propagation Integrity: Does information and intent flow cleanly through the governance network?
Alignment Flow Tests: Do governance pathways route decisions toward mission outcomes or away from them?
Resilience Flow Tests: What happens if a key governance node is overloaded, removed, or delayed?
Drift Flow Detection: Where is flow leaking into informal channels?
Where are exceptions becoming norms?
Redundancy Mapping: Where do two or more governance bodies perform overlapping roles?
WorkLattice transforms governance from static artefact to dynamic flow-engineered system.
Punchline: Flow Determines What the Organisation Can Become
If decisions are the metabolism, governance is the flow control system that determines whether:
signal moves cleanly
pressure is absorbed or amplified
decisions reach the right place
or the organisation slowly becomes clogged with friction
Coherence depends on the quality of flow.
You can redesign structure, write new strategies, upgrade technology,
but if governance constrains flow, nothing moves as intended.
Flow enables your mission.
Looking Ahead - Article 8: Transformation Portfolios and System Leverage
Article 8 examines:
how to design transformation portfolios that reshape flow
why most change programs increase noise instead of coherence
how to measure leverage versus fragmentation
how WorkLattice identifies the smallest interventions with the largest systemic impact
It closes the series by connecting architecture, coherence, decisions, governance, and system leverage.
Reflection
If you mapped how decisions actually flow through your organisation,
would it resemble a system designed with intent, or plumbing assembled over decades?