Ben Webb: Governance Theatre Is Killing Projects
Most “governance” in major projects is theatre.
Committees meet. Slides circulate. Decisions are “noted”. Everyone feels protected — until the project collapses and no one can explain who actually decided what.
I’ve worked inside projects where governance existed purely to distribute blame, not enable delivery. The more nervous an organisation becomes, the more layers it adds. The result isn’t control — it’s paralysis.
Real governance is simple: clear authority, clear decision rights, and accountability that can’t be outsourced to a meeting. If a project can’t answer who decides and when, it isn’t governed — it’s drifting.
Projects don’t fail from lack of process. They fail from lack of courage.
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