We’ve all met them. The scope creeps. They’re the ones in your project meetings saying: “What if we just added this one thing?” And then another. And another. Until your once-sleek idea is buried beneath layers of “best practice” bells and whistles.

Sound familiar?

It’s the same trap I see with internal frameworks – risk, change, procurement, take your pick. You start with a solid idea, you research what others are doing, throw in a few industry buzzwords, and before you know it, your framework has a 40-page manual, a glossary, and a PhD prerequisite.

And what happens next?

Crickets. Or worse – confusion, resistance, and endless emails asking, “What exactly do you want from us?”

Here’s the hard truth: complexity kills engagement.

If you want leaders to actually use your framework, not just nod politely at your slide deck, then you need to make it useful. And that means simple.

Start here:

• What’s the bare minimum required for good decision-making?
• Can you draw it? (Yes, literally. On a whiteboard. With your team.)

A good framework should feel like a roadmap. A visual tool that shows people:

• Where they are
• Where they need to go
• And how to get there

Better yet, build it with them. Grab your team, sketch it out, test it with stakeholders. If they can follow it without needing a translator, you’re on the right track. And once you’ve got the bones, build the rest of your governance around it.

For C-Suite leaders: Challenge your teams. Ask them to show you the visual roadmap behind the frameworks they’re championing. And reward the ones that make your life easier, not harder.

For risk professionals: Our job is to help leaders make decisions within appetite. If your risk framework doesn’t clearly guide them to make decisions within appetite for risk versus going “out of bounds,” then you’ve got a gap. Ask yourself – does it guide them well, or, even worse, does it just sit on the shelf?

Let’s keep it simple. Let’s make it usable.