A Field Guide for Practitioners of Structured Uncertainty
Introduction
The University is governed by a clear and transparent decision-making framework.
This framework is documented extensively across policies, strategic plans, procedural guidelines, escalation matrices, and supplementary explanatory frameworks explaining how to interpret the preceding documents.
Despite this, staff frequently report uncertainty about how decisions are made.
This is expected.
Uncertainty is one of the University’s key governance outputs.
1. The Official Decision Pathway
Formally, decisions follow this sequence:
Issue identified
Proposal developed
Consultation undertaken
Approval sought
Decision made
Decision implemented
This pathway is known as the Linear Governance Model (LGM).
It is rarely used in practice, but remains institutionally important as a reference structure for audits.
2. The Actual Decision Pathway
In practice, decisions follow a different trajectory:
Someone notices something needs to happen
Someone else has already started doing it
A third person formalises what is already happening
A committee confirms that what is happening is acceptable
A policy is written to describe what was already happening
The original action is now considered “fully aligned with strategy”
This is known as the Retrospective Legitimisation Model (RLM).
It is the University’s primary operational logic.
3. The Parallel Pathways Problem
At any given time, both LGM and RLM are considered valid.
This creates what is known as Governance Superposition:
A decision is both approved and not yet approved
A process both exists and is under development
Responsibility is both assigned and distributed
Resolution occurs only when someone attempts to document the situation formally, at which point the system collapses into whichever explanation causes the least immediate administrative disruption.
4. Informal Decision-Makers
Despite official structures, most decisions are influenced by a small group of individuals who:
respond quickly
understand historical context
know which policy can safely be ignored without triggering escalation
and have not changed roles since the pre-digital era
They are not formally designated as decision-makers.
They are simply the people who answer emails correctly.
Their authority is not written anywhere, which is how it remains stable.
5. The Role of Committees
Committees serve three essential functions:
They confirm that decisions have already been made elsewhere
They provide a socially acceptable delay between confusion and implementation
They convert uncertainty into recorded minutes, thereby making it auditable
A common misunderstanding is that committees make decisions.
In reality, committees make decisions legible.
6. Escalation Protocols
When uncertainty arises, staff are advised to escalate through the following stages:
Stage 1: Ask a colleague
Stage 2: Ask a more senior colleague
Stage 3: Ask someone who looks like they have seen this before
Stage 4: Ask Margaret (if available)
Stage 5: Reconstruct what is probably already happening and proceed cautiously
At Stage 5, governance becomes indistinguishable from intuition.
7. Policy Functionality Principle
All policies are designed to:
provide guidance
ensure consistency
support accountability
and remain sufficiently flexible to accommodate any outcome that has already occurred
A policy that prevents an existing practice is considered:
“in need of clarification.”
A practice that violates no policy but contradicts institutional expectation is considered:
“innovative.”
8. The Hidden Stability Mechanism
The University appears unstable when viewed through formal governance structures.
However, stability is maintained through:
informal trust networks
accumulated institutional memory
shared reluctance to escalate anything unnecessarily
and the quiet understanding that most things will resolve themselves if left alone long enough
This system is not documented.
It is inherited.
Conclusion
The University does not function because governance structures are effective.
It functions because governance structures are optional in practice but mandatory in documentation.
Between these two states—documented order and practical improvisation—lies the space in which the institution actually operates.
Most staff learn, over time, to live comfortably in that space.
Some even come to prefer it.
They are usually the ones who know where Margaret is.
End of Field Guide
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