Governance, goals, strategies, policies, standards and procedures

Question 1

Governance

Answer 1

The act of creating a plan for how a company will achieve a goal and making sure everyone executes the plan. The responsibility of the boards and company executives. Important that the people tasked with governance mush have the authority to enforce it.

Question 2

Goal

Answer 2

The result we want to achieve.

Question 3

Strategy

Answer 3

• Plan of action to achieve a goal.
• Successful strategy answers:
  
  1. Where are we now?
  2. Where do we want to be?
  3. What is the gap between the two?
  4. What do we need to close the gap?

Question 4

Anchoring

Answer 4

Once people have seen a number, they will tend to tie subsequent estimates to the original number even if context is completely unrelated.

Question 5

Status quo bias

Answer 5

People will favor a known approach even when it has been shown to be ineffective.

Question 6

Endowment effect

Answer 6

People hold something they already have at a higher value than if they didn’t already own it.

Question 7

Mental accounting effect

Answer 7

People treat money differently based on where it comes from how how it is spent.

Question 8

Herding instinct

Answer 8

The tendency for people to follow others

Question 9

False consensus

Answer 9

The tendency to overestimate the extent to which other people share our own views or beliefs

Question 10

Confirmation bias

Answer 10

Seeking / believing opinions and facts that support a conclusion we have already reached.

Question 11

Selective recall

Answer 11

We remember only facts and experiences that support our current assumptions.

Question 12

Biased assimilation

Answer 12

We accept only facts that support our current position of perspective.

Question 13

Biased evaluation

Answer 13

We attack anyone presenting acts that don’t support our current position or perspective.

Question 14

Groupthink

Answer 14

Pressure for agreement in group settings.

Question 15

Elements of a strategy

Answer 15

• Need to examine many elements and their interactions when creating a roadmap: people, processes, tech, other resources.
• Biggest components are resources and constraints.
• Best to employ a security framework to help guide.
• Usually a long-term process broken up into smaller projects that can be executed in a reasonable time frame.
• Built-in checkpoints to validate assumptions, change course if needed and provides metrics to continue validating the strategy.
• Constraints may be:
  Legal
  Physical
  Ethical
  Cultural
  Costs
  Personnel
  Org structure
  Resources
  Time
  Risk appetite

Question 16

Policy

Answer 16

• A high-level statement of what leadership expects. * Dictates the direction.
• Doesn’t specify how, just what.

Question 17

Attributes of a good policy

Answer 17

• Clearly describes a strategy that captures the intent of management.
• States only a single general mandate.
• Clear and easily understood by all affected parties.
• General no more than a few sentences long.
• Part of a complete set that is not more than two dozen.

Question 18

Standard

Answer 18

• Tell us how to carry out the policy.
• Must provide enough parameters to allow us to determine if a procedure or practice meets the requirements.
• Shouldn’t limit technology options too much.
• Must have an exception process when a process can’t meet a standard.

Question 19

Procedure

Answer 19

• List of steps required to accomplish a task.
• Defines:
  Required conditions before execution
  Information displayed
  Expected outcome
  How to handle unexpected outcomes
• Must be clear and exact.
• Limit inclusion of discretionary tasks to prevent dilution.

Question 20

Guideline

Answer 20

• Contains info useful when executing procedures.

* More flexible than standards