The Practice of Governance: Approaching a Deeply Human Imagination

John Bloom

Preamble—Governance as organizational grammar

The word governance does not sit well with many people; my sense is that it evokes authority and power both of which carry mixed associated feelings. In wrestling with this reality, I realized that grammar plays a role in language that is functionally similar to governance in organizations. I asked a high school English teacher why grammar is taught (of course, we used to have grammar schools for the grades students). The response was that while grammar is necessary set guidelines or rules for the use of language, its real purpose is to make it possible to structure language and especially written communication in a way that could be shared and understood by as wide an audience as possible. While grammar, its structure and its rules, is not in itself any message, it supports the ideas and meaning that an author is trying to convey. I would say that governance is organizational grammar. Governance is not mission, but its practices, its “rules” make the mission accessible effectively. Just as grammar bring order to thought, governance brings order to multiplicity of activities, roles, and responsibilities that support an organization delivering its mission to the world in a way that the world can understand it, engage with it, trust it. And just like grammar, governance is a field of practice that is constantly evolving, a practice that requires care and reflection, research, and a truing up to its purpose and the context in which it is serving.