Managing Governance within Ecosystem Designs

Governance needs to constantly “account” for change. Here is a handy reference or reflection of its capacity to deliver:

You need a living environment, one that evolves constantly

+ Here, you must establish a relational, institutional and coordination set of strategic and operational approaches. The “living” document needs to reflect on the constant reshaping of the ecosystem as it evolves and recognize that this is a constantly evolving design.

+ Governance needs to articulate the influencing and coordinating mechanisms, their different levels, and the protocols and procedures to resolve any disputes or pathway directions all would need to follow and adhere to.

+ It needs to determine the boundary conditions and if and when these change, which they are most likely to, there is a mechanism in place to recognize this and determine any new scope, direction or design to be accepted going forward.

+ A governance document must have built into it sufficient commonality and be transparent in its spirit of amiability to coordination and decision-making.

+ It needs to determine the critical driving forces but equally reflect on the different catalyzing forces in tensions and design that individual members will attempt to impose, so there needs a resolution method to be able to go back and refer to.

+ there is a constant need to adjust and adapt as more insight and design take shape and evolves.

+ Managing dynamic tensions carefully can result in significant thinking and design solutions breakthroughs.

+ There will be very different cognitive frames constantly occurring, as we all see something more unknown than known in our own ways of thinking and experiences. The Governance mechanism should attempt to reflect this variance but have the controls to recognize and draw those increasingly into one view, vision and mission.

+ What you start with inevitably does not stand the test of time, certainly when you are in a creative, innovative, pioneering environment. Checking constantly builds the changing view, allowing options to reflect this in parts of the vision and mission so all those involved have an understanding that this is a “living, breathing evolution.”

+ All ecosystems evolve or will eventually die. The ability to design in some constantly proactively shaping, steering, and leveraging mechanisms helps. How this is handled, communicated and discussed becomes a critical ‘living force’ to construct. Ideas form, mature and then need challenge as they go into decline.

+ The whole need to address inertia or free-riders does need carefully designed into the document. Those that cannot support creation have a lesser place in any ecosystem. They cannot or should not stop evolution. Those not contributing need to recognize the consequences of ecosystem thinking of natural selection; they need to have specific fitness, robustness, and resilience to be valued. Otherwise, what they offer has no future value, and they must leave for the health of all still willing to the evolving nature of Ecosystems.

Never rest on Governance being a static document or set of initial principles; it can be the very catalyst and promotor of a living, dynamic ecosystem as it “promotes and nurtures” change.

There is always a need for a strong orchestrator; here is my opening suggesting “Orchestrating the New Ecosystem Business Design” to kick start any thinking.

My other thoughts are to spend some time on the excellent series offering practical guidance on Ecosystems from BCG Henderson Institute and one specific article relating to Governance, “How do you manage a Business Ecosystem.” It recommends pursuing the orchestrator’s need to manage the governance of an ecosystem with three key primary objectives: 1. Support value creation of the ecosystem, 2. Manage risk in the ecosystem, and 3. Optimize value distribution amongst the ecosystem partners.

BCG also suggest, “Orchestrators must establish an effective governance model, which we (BCG) define as the set of (explicit or implicit) structures, rules and practices that frame and govern the behaviour and interplay of participants in a business ecosystem.”

Governance is always essential in any Ecosystem or Network of Collaborators. It should NEVER be deemed as static, written when the Ecosystem is formed and then just simply left in place. It must be central within conversations, challenged and updated by consensus and encouraged to be highly dynamic and constantly at the very core to keeping the Ecosystem healthy and thriving.

It requires the driving forces of value creation and the recognition that growth and sustainability are part of its foundation

It provides the rules, mechanisms and framing for all the partners to sign on to and use as (one of) the foundation documents, to refer to on a constant basis, as issues arise and need some level of resolution.

Governance of Ecosystems is vital, it needs that constant dynamic to bring any collaboration to life and provide an environment that thrives and improves on what is existing.

• Partly taken from a previous post, “The Constantly Living Dynamics of Ecosystem Governance always needed.”