Satire
The Steering Committee That Steered Into Another Steering Committee
The programme needed governance. So governance created a committee to govern the governance.
The programme got a Steering Committee. It met monthly. It produced minutes and action items.
The action items accumulated.
What Actually Happens
The committee decided it needed a working group to clear the backlog of action items. The working group needed its own terms of reference before it could operate. The terms of reference required approval from the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee was already tracking a risk about the working group not being formed yet.
The working group formed, met twice, and escalated three items back to the Steering Committee as out-of-scope. The Steering Committee agreed these required a sub-committee with delegated authority to resolve them. The sub-committee was chartered at the next monthly meeting.
The programme is in its third year. Three people have been asked to name a decision the Steering Committee has made. None of them could.
“I have attended 14 steering committees this year. I have steered nothing.”
DivineForge Advisory
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Let's talk architecture →How a Builder Should Respond
You name the specific decision each governance forum exists to make, and you test that in the first meeting. If a committee cannot name the decision it is chartered to make, it is not governance — it is a status broadcast with catering. You route decisions to the person with authority to make them, not the forum with the most attendees. When asked to join a new committee, you ask what decision you will be making and what happens if you are not in the room. If the answer is nothing changes, that is your answer.
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