Action

What the activity covers

Action closes the loop: the governing body reviews the findings, sets targets and priorities, resources the initiatives, and reports to the organization and to relevant stakeholders.

What a working action step looks like

Action is where the model becomes useful to a board. The report should separate the level found from the level that is appropriate, name the gap and its owner, and set a date for the next look. A group that reports a level without a target and an owner has produced a description, not an improvement cycle, and the next evaluation will find the same result.

The artefact this activity leaves

• The improvement plan with owners, dates and resources.
• The priority rationale, including the harm and benefit assessment.
• The report to the board and to stakeholders.
• The next review date and the evidence to refresh.

What goes wrong

A report with no improvement plan turns the evaluation into an annual ritual.

Who owns it in a group

The controller's governing body owns the programme, but the activity has to reach every entity in the boundary. For action, record which board or committee took the decision, which entities were included, and where an entity's own view differed. A programme that runs only at group level produces a group result that the entity boards do not recognise. Where an entity is excluded, record why: a recent acquisition, a joint venture with reserved matters or a board that has asked to be treated separately. An exclusion that is written down is a scope decision; an exclusion that is silent is a defect in the evaluation.

Where it sits

• All five activities
• The three aspects
• The six-point scale
• All 35 requirements