Organizations are created to achieve objectives of a board of directors or the equivalent.  The challenge has been how to enable an organization but also protect the resources entrusted to it by its owners.  That is, how do you both Control and Enable an organization? The COSO Framework frames the question of Control but does not address the other side of the coin, things like employee-motivation, capitalizing on opportunities, customer service or the outcomes of public policy.  These are examples of what I call ‘Enablement’.

Enabling the Gap

Control and Enablement are not mutually exclusive but instead ends of a continuum of an entity’s activities.  This range of activities is the ‘Management Control and Enablement Framework’ (MCEF) which can be depicted graphically as follows.

Mind the Continuum

Control and Enablement are opposite ends of a continuum and are both in conflict and rely on each other.  Too little control and an organization pursues rogue or personal objectives.  Too much control withers and destroys and enabling environment killing innovation or motivation. A Management Control and Enablement Framework (MCEF) attempts to balance these two competing concepts so as to create an effective organization.  Balancing is not a static one-time affair; it requires constant adjustments, effective monitoring and a strong situational awareness.  For some organizations, MCEF’ing comes natural to them.  Factors such as size, simplicity of geography and a clear organizational mission make control easier.  For others, MCEF’ing is complex, challenging, costly and exhausting for the board, management and staff.

MCEF and Organizational Biology

MCEF’s intent is to not add another ‘thou shalt dictum’; instead MCEF provides a way to understand and categorize how organizations work.  MCEF is a continuously applied framework so that as an organization evolves, so does MCEF.  MCEF is built on a reporting basis so that trends and status can be monitored by the organization.  In other words, MCEF is designed to support organizational control while constantly challenging that control to nurture organizational enablement.

This purpose aligns with the underlying premise of this website: human organizations are fundamentally based on biological principles.  That is they exist in ecosystems, interact with and adapt to their environment and develop structures (Mass) to survive.  There is also more to organizational beings, a spark that directs their instincts or channels their intellect to do more than just exist – biological entities also want to live and thrive (Adeptness).  MCEF is simply another way to look at how ‘Organizations Really Work‘.

In a previous blog, COSO – Mind the Gap, I discussed the challenges an organization has in making the leap from the Internal Control Framework to its practical application.  This blog introduced a framework that can help with that leap and the next one discusses the tools used whilst in mid-air enjoying the view of the gap.