Lemon Meringue and a Hybrid Version of Policy Governance®

I’m not overly fond of pie but I like the filling, unless it’s rhubarb which I think must taste like vegetated battery acid. Lemon meringue on the other hand is to die for. The part I don’t like is the crust. I have tried to imagine some food described as crust that might taste good, but I haven’t been able.

My 91 year old mother-in-law still bakes pies, including lemon meringue. The pies she makes are supposed to be different – adjectives such as flaky and moist are used to disguise the crusty sensation of crust. However she came up with a creative way of getting her special son-in-law to enjoy lemon meringue pie. When the rest of the family is sentenced to eating the cardboard with the lemon meringue, she makes me a special pie without the crust. She serves it in a dish the way pie should be served – and yes it is to die for.

I have tried in vain to point out to Lorna that her mother has learned the secret to baking good pies. Lorna continues to point out that what I am served is not lemon meringue pie, but rather lemon meringue pudding. She contends that it is the filling inside the crust that makes it a pie.

Organizational leaders often tell me they are using a hybrid version of Policy Governance.  What they are really saying is that they are using some of the Policy Governance filling and dumping it into their own bowl. Like me they leave out the stuff they have a hard time swallowing and while they may enjoy the taste, they are not having Policy Governance. In the same way that pie is pie when there is a crust and the filling is put inside the crust, Policy Governance is only Policy Governance when all the ingredients are included and integrated in the designated way.

So if you like the sensation of the filling without the crust, keep eating. However take to heart the words of my wife: don’t call it pie when it isn’t pie.