Ten Reasons Governance Is Like Sex

At the J Boye Conference in Philadelphia earlier this month, I joined a panel reviewing some of the "hot topics" from the event. As you might expect at a gathering of web and intranet managers, the issue of governance kept recurring.

We could debate what governance means -- I define it as consistent structures and processes for making effective decisions -- but everyone agrees governance is critical to long-term success.I don't claim to be an expert on website and IT governance, but after a couple decades of helping people make technology decisions, I'll boil down my thoughts on the topic to one simile:

Governance is like sex:

• People tend to talk about it more than they do it, and...
• ...Most people don't do it as much as they'd like
• At least one key player needs to really want it or it will never get started
• There are many different ways to do it satisfactorily
• It's more art than science
• It's more successful in environments characterized by mutual trust
• Other people can give you a lot of good advice, but only you can make it happen
• You may not get it right at first, but that shouldn't stop you from trying
• A shared sense of fairness encourages repeatability
• In the end, bad governance is better than no governance at all

Download a free research sample or purchase a subscription to access the research immediately.I don't claim to be an expert on IT governance, but after a couple decades of helping people make technology decisions, I'll boil down my thoughts on the topic to one simile: Governance is like sex because...