40 / 234
THE ART OF GOVERNANCE
i
f the Technical Management Board (TMB) and its respective
Working Units were the backbone of IIW, and its qualification scheme was its very
soul, then at the heart of IIW’s success was the way it was governed. Governance is a
broad-ranging term encompassing the rules, relationships, policies, systems and processes
whereby authority within an organisation is exercised and maintained. Good governance is
about the processes for making and implementing decisions and therefore is accountable,
transparent, equitable, inclusive, responsible, participatory, ethical and follows the rule
of law.
1
The art of governance not only meets all of these criteria but also involves the
incorporation of strategies related to inclusiveness such as equality, opportunity, rewards,
recognition for outstanding service, and the opportunity for social interaction at IIWAnnual
Assembly and Working Unit meetings.
IIW’s early business/strategic planning process, in the 1990s, was
mainly to solve the issues of the day and did not really focus on where the
Institute was heading and how it was going to get there. Business planning
within IIW has since become more professional in its design and in the way
collective leadership could achieve its goals on issues of direct importance
to the Institute. Following the completion of a new Constitution and the
adoption of the final draft of IIW’s Bye-Laws in 1997, a ‘visioning’workshop
was held in late 1997 to examine the ways and means of developing a new
business plan for IIW.
Elements of the IIW Business Plan were discussed in Hamburg, Germany in May
1998 but it was evident that considerable work was required before it was considered to
be complete.
2
Mr Bevan Braithwaite assisted Mr Michel Bramat and the Secretariat in
this process and, by the time of the forthcoming Annual Assembly meeting in Hamburg,
Germany in September 1998, the Business Plan had been circulated to Member Societies,
Commissions and other Working Units for input and was unanimously adopted at this
Assembly.
3
A total of 22 strategies were included in the Business Plan on such aspects as
relationships with ISO, creation of a new website, communications, environment, health
and safety, the qualification scheme, and many other matters of importance to IIW.
At the outset, the contents of the Business Plan were considered to be too ambitious
and would require considerable resources for the plan to be implemented and monitored in