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BIG Vision

DD

The current BIG Vision is publicised here: https://big-cic.org.uk/purpose-vision-and-goals/

The Vision of the BIG CIC can be summarised as follows:

A developing Body of Knowledge (BoK): This is provided in summary from to the Public, and in Rich Detail to BIG CIC Members. This is free of charge.
BIG Volunteers: Operate the BIG CIC, develop and publicise knowledge
BIG Partners: Support the BIG CIC as volunteers. Develop training / consulting / services to assist organisations to understand, adapt and adopt / operate / sustain BIG. Support funding the BIG CIC.
BIG Professional Connections: Develop collaborative relationships with thought leading individuals and professional bodies to validate and integrate with BIG thinking (remembering we are not trying to re-invent any wheels with BIG)
BIG Membership: to build a core of BIG Members who subscribed (free) to use the BIG Body of Knowledge, and be the primary BIG Stakeholders.
BIG Exams and Accreditation: Develop a BIG Syllabus and set of exams to enable Members to demonstrate knowledge of / capability with the BIG BoK
BIG Funding: Secure the funding for BIG CIC expenses through donations, and fees taken for Exams. Expenses to include Corporate (Accounting, Companies House fees, ICO fees), Website, Professional Services (e.g. Proof reading, publishing, admin), Software (e.g. Publishing software, licences for business tools, direct expenses for exams) – not expected at more than £2k per year)
BIG Website: Develop a platform to Introduce BIG, provide an entry point for Members, an index of Partners, the Body of Knowledge and supplementary materials, explain who we are, enable a point of contact.
BIG Collaboration: Develop a LinkedIn Group membership to enable communication, a YouTube presence to enable sharing of video content, and a deeper collaboration platform to enable public threaded discussions, and a document management capability (Teams / SharePoint) to enable content sharing and communication on development.

What do we need to change?

ChrisB

DD Perhaps we need to add a topic : BIG Case Studies and References

Could just be BIG Experience or BIG in Practice or something I suppose.

simon

Linked in clearly isn’t doing ‘it’
‘It’ is the need to have a community of folk who do what the onboarding pages here and your 3 posts are proving as context & asking about

I’ve put effort into enabling the pre-reqs to working-up community 🙂 the next stage needs folk turning up AND coordination of the effort to develop the folk into community.

We need to talk the path & roles &c
Caio
Simon

DD

ChrisB
I think this is implied - but I agree this is important enough to bring out as a new topic.
The only examples of BIG use (in any form) have been written by me and put into the BoK. While a kick start - we absolutely need a way to gather and publicise examples - to promote the BoK, evidence success, and provide publicity for those involved in the example. We have testimonials about the BoK - but we need more….

So - I’d propose adding this:
“A developing set of case examples, references and testimonials: these provide evidence of value from the BoK, stimulation for others to use the BoK to solve their challenges, and publicity for those that have succeeded using the materials.”

simon

DD So - I’d propose adding this:
“A developing set of case examples, references and testimonials: these provide evidence of value from the BoK, stimulation for others to use the BoK to solve their challenges, and publicity for those that have succeeded using the materials.”

ChrisB

DD I think perhaps we need to go further than this.
I would suggest that the purpose of the CIC is solely to drive adoption of integrated governance in organisations, with sustainability as a core component of ‘good’ governance today. The BOK, training, publicity, etc., are not goals in themselves but the means are achieving the core purpose.

So case studies and stories, even short statements of commitments or pledges, should be the key content published by the CIC, along with the supporting practical tips on how to implement governance and what it looks like, as currently in the BOK and CIC material.

ahudson

Is it worth doing further research to understand the problem this is solving from the leader’s perspective? If we can unlock that, then maybe it will help to increase traction? I had a look online but couldn’t find any of the original work done on the problem statements.

simon

ahudson problem this is solving

Could you replace the word this with a description of what you think it is a placeholder for?

I find one of the challenges with many forms of communication including governance is the use of the indefinite article because the reader rarely has the same mental model as the writer meaning that conversations are not sharing common understanding.

Lack of a shared mental model is assumes increased significance when the concepts are moving from the concrete to the abstract or from the actions to implement to the principles that shape the selection of possible actions.

🙂

simon

I’ve added a major category for case studies and they’re always was a universal category (tag) for collateral content.

A realistic first step in understanding more - the outcome of “research” (?) - is to start a conversation and see what divergent themes different experiences bring and then what convergent thoughts can be extracted

I suggest the few of us here at the moment are quite capable of debating topics with a good exposure of the basics

So I say Please start threads within the categories that exist or propose new categories

Simon

simon

ChrisB

💯%

DD

ChrisB
I think the purpose of the BIG CIC is to create the knowledge and matters related, but the purpose of partner organisations is drive adoption. As a voluntary CIC- I cannot drive anything,..

DD

Hi All,
I’ve done an update to the BIG CIC vision based on input

BIG CIC is a sustainable non-profit dedicated to developing and sharing Business Integrated Governance (BIG)—an open-source framework that helps organizations improve strategy delivery by defining, building, and managing the capabilities needed for end-to-end strategic execution. Its Body of Knowledge outlines key concepts, principles, components, and a roadmap for strategic improvement. This evolving resource is continuously enriched through collaboration, education, and accreditation within an active community.

• BIG Body of Knowledge (BoK) – A free, evolving knowledge base with summarized public content and in-depth details for members.
• BIG Membership – A free subscription granting access to the BoK, making members key stakeholders.
• BIG Leadership & Volunteers – Leaders guide BIG CIC; volunteers develop and share knowledge.
• BIG Partners – Provide training, consulting, and solutions to help organizations adopt BIG.
• BIG Professional Network – Collaborate with thought leaders and professional bodies to validate BIG.
• BIG Website – A central hub for introducing BIG, accessing the BoK, finding partners, and contacting BIG CIC.
• BIG Collaboration – Platforms like LinkedIn, YouTube, and Teams/SharePoint for discussion, content sharing, and deeper engagement.
• BIG Exams & Accreditation – A syllabus and exams to certify expertise in BIG.
• BIG Funding – Supported by donations, exam fees, and partner sponsorships.

This is slimmed down and simplified. Will use in session tomorrow.

ChrisB

I am concerned that some of the notes (in High level Messaging) from the 4th Feb meeting focus on strategy delivery and not integrated governance.

If we want to attract all parties we probably need to avoid being seen as just another strategy delivery framework or strategy information model with associated jargon, and have BIG rejected because there are many other (and perhaps better recognised) strategy delivery frameworks, and many other tools for that. BIG is about governance, surely, and not strategy delivery. We quite rightly say in the BOK that it is not only about strategy, but covers BAU too, and yet to me it seems we are trying to sell BIG as strategy delivery. Yes, it impacts strategy delivery, of course, but that is not what it is, and it works whatever jargon or framework is being used for strategy delivery. It is about decision making and sustainability.

simon

ChrisB We quite rightly say in the BOK that it is not only about strategy, but covers BAU too, and yet to me it seems

This is perhaps a vocabulary point but you appear to be saying that strategy is one thing and business is usual is another thing

For me strategy is inclusive of everything currently do everything we have chosen not to do everything that we are incapable of doing but may later decide is attractive : the whole for the long and the short term.

It really is Kaplan and Norton’s Balanced Scorecard in the widest and most relevant sense
Ultimately at a global level as every organization’s scorecard needs to balance organizationally parochial interests with societal and national parochial interests and with global aggregate interests…
Previous generations saw the operation of a company country within an open system. We now see that the global context is a closed loop system - global warming and oceans of plastic micro particles are part of the costs by the globe of activity conducted in one location - the definition of a Super Wicked Problem see under Related Concepts

3¢

DD

ChrisB
I understand the point about BIG being a tool which we can apply to many purposes.

However - in the second paragraph of our management summary - https://big-cic.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Chapter-1.pdf - we position BIG very clearly as aimed at improving strategy delivery. In chapter 3 - we align strategy, strategy delivery and governance - https://big-cic.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Chapter-3.pdf - the relationship between strategy delivery and governance is constantly referenced.

However - of the other frameworks I have seen, and the tools I’ve had a look at - many talk about strategy delivery JUST as about change. There is focus on the strategic CHANGE objectives.

Hence - it puzzles me when you say BIG is “not only about strategy, but covers BAU too”. According to our BoK - BAU, Value Creation and Change are all instruments of strategy delivery.

I think there is a contrast with BIG and some specific “strategy delivery” frameworks and tools in that BIG is about all workloads that support strategy delivery - not just the change ones - and the focus is on integrated governance as the means to achieve that.

I think that is a real differtiator.

Also - I think we should really aim at smaller organisations - as larger ones will buy expensive consultants and swallow Hoishin Kanri!

ChrisB

simon Absolutely - a simpler and more practical approach to the Execution Premium ala K&N and promoted by Mihai Ionescu ([https://explaining-strategy.com/] among others. I have followed the 3rd generation approach to BSC promoted by Gavin Lawrie of 2GC in my implementations, but it is clear to anyone trying to formulate or implement strategy that it is all about making sure the whole organisation is operating/implementing the strategy - I don’t find people think of it as being only about projects.

simon

DD puzzles me when you say BIG is “not only about strategy, but covers BAU too”. According to our BoK - BAU, Value Creation and Change are all instruments of strategy delivery.

100%

But isn’t this part of the problem?

It’s not that we define strategy as being everything 🙂

it’s that other people don’t so we need to be explicit.

Offering a statement that makes sense if you have our context in your head leads to a misunderstanding if you don’t almost guarantees miss-communication with others if we assume

Thus statements made to people who probably have not read the book need to restate fundamentals

The space it takes to say it all explicitly to remove the opportunity for misunderstanding was why I suggested not saying anything in that particular little piece of text

3¢

ChrisB

DD My point is exactly that we are focusing on strategy delivery rather than governance although we call is Integrated Governance. Integrated governance is a key component of success in strategy delivery, but it is broader than that and is NOT synonymous with that despite the fact that it is necessary for that. And it is core to strategy formulation as well, but again is not the same despite large overlaps.

Thee are good reasons to implement BIG without only considering strategy delivery, such as BAU, sustainability and customer/supply chain relationships.

simon

ChrisB
The phrase I have always liked for this sort of relationship is

Necessary but not sufficient

I too have used balance scorecard as evolved in various quarters.

I’ve also been a fan of what was once called Dimension Four

Http://logicalmodel.net/t/t5
Has some of the message

Slide 14 & 15 says it explicitly
18 & 19 are pas 808 long before it was published!



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