Compass Performance, Inc.

Compass Diagnostics · LEAD™

Governance Readiness Diagnostic™

Governance either carries weight or carries names. This diagnostic scores the standing practices that hold authority in place — and returns an Executive Report with quartile results.

Most private enterprises have a board on paper and governance in practice held together by one person's memory.

Governance is not a document. It is the standing set of practices that decides who owns what, who sees what, and what happens when a key seat empties. When those practices are informal, the enterprise still functions — until scale, transition, or a shock arrives.

This diagnostic rates eighteen practices across six dimensions on a four-point practice scale: not in place, informal, documented, operating. The result is a scored Executive Report positioning the enterprise — and each dimension — in a quartile, with the repairs ordered by structural exposure.

The Six Dimensions

  1. 01

    Ownership clarity

    FOUNDATION™

    Do the owners speak with one voice about purpose and risk?

    • Owners have a written statement of purpose, time horizon, and risk appetite.
    • A standing policy governs distributions, reinvestment, and debt limits.
    • Owners engage the business through the board, not around it.

  2. 02

    Board architecture

    LEAD™

    Does the board govern the enterprise, or manage the business?

    • The board has a written charter defining its reserved powers.
    • The board includes independent capability the business does not already have.
    • The board meets on a set calendar with a standing agenda and minutes.

  3. 03

    Decision rights

    LEAD™

    For each consequential decision, is there one clear owner?

    • Consequential decisions each name a single deciding body.
    • Escalation thresholds are stated in currency and time, not judgment.
    • No single person decides a majority of consequential decisions.

  4. 04

    Information integrity

    SIMPLIFY™

    Does the board see reality early enough to act on it?

    • A board pack is distributed in advance on a fixed lead time.
    • Financial statements close on a reliable calendar and are trusted.
    • A small set of leading measures is reviewed at every meeting.

  5. 05

    Risk and control

    ARC™

    Are the enterprise's real exposures named and owned?

    • A current risk register names each material exposure and its owner.
    • Delegated authority limits are written and enforced.
    • Independent assurance — audit, review, or external check — is in place.

  6. 06

    Succession and continuity

    GROW™

    Would the enterprise survive the loss of its key seats?

    • A CEO succession plan exists and the board owns it.
    • An emergency continuity plan covers sudden loss of a key leader.
    • Critical roles have identified, developing successors.

How Results Are Banded

Quartile bands and what each position means
QuartileScoreVerdictWhat it means
Q1 — Top quartile75 – 100Load-bearingGovernance carries weight. The work is maintenance and stress-testing, not construction.
Q2 — Second quartile50 – 74Structurally sound, unevenly appliedThe structure exists but is applied unevenly. Discipline, not design, is the constraint.
Q3 — Third quartile25 – 49Personality-dependentGovernance runs on individuals rather than architecture. It will not survive scale or transition.
Q4 — Bottom quartile0 – 24AbsentThere is no standing governance to carry the next stage. Build before you grow.

Run the Diagnostic

Instrument · Governance Readiness Diagnostic

Is governance carrying weight, or carrying names?

Rate each standing practice as it actually operates today — not as intended. Eighteen practices across six dimensions produce a scored Executive Report with quartile results for the enterprise and for each dimension.

Not in place

Informal

Documented

Operating

0 / 18 rated

  1. 01Ownership clarity

    FOUNDATION™

    Do the owners speak with one voice about purpose and risk?

    • Owners have a written statement of purpose, time horizon, and risk appetite.
    • A standing policy governs distributions, reinvestment, and debt limits.
    • Owners engage the business through the board, not around it.

  2. 02Board architecture

    LEAD™

    Does the board govern the enterprise, or manage the business?

    • The board has a written charter defining its reserved powers.
    • The board includes independent capability the business does not already have.
    • The board meets on a set calendar with a standing agenda and minutes.

  3. 03Decision rights

    LEAD™

    For each consequential decision, is there one clear owner?

    • Consequential decisions each name a single deciding body.
    • Escalation thresholds are stated in currency and time, not judgment.
    • No single person decides a majority of consequential decisions.

  4. 04Information integrity

    SIMPLIFY™

    Does the board see reality early enough to act on it?

    • A board pack is distributed in advance on a fixed lead time.
    • Financial statements close on a reliable calendar and are trusted.
    • A small set of leading measures is reviewed at every meeting.

  5. 05Risk and control

    ARC™

    Are the enterprise's real exposures named and owned?

    • A current risk register names each material exposure and its owner.
    • Delegated authority limits are written and enforced.
    • Independent assurance — audit, review, or external check — is in place.

  6. 06Succession and continuity

    GROW™

    Would the enterprise survive the loss of its key seats?

    • A CEO succession plan exists and the board owns it.
    • An emergency continuity plan covers sudden loss of a key leader.
    • Critical roles have identified, developing successors.

Executive Report

Governance readiness score

0/100

Not yet rated

Rate each standing practice as it actually operates today — not as intended.

Quartile by dimension

Score and quartile for each governance dimension
DimensionScoreQuartile
Ownership clarity—Not rated
Board architecture—Not rated
Decision rights—Not rated
Information integrity—Not rated
Risk and control—Not rated
Succession and continuity—Not rated
Page size

210 × 297 mm — standard outside North America. Applies to every PDF you download here and to printing from your browser.

The full report adds the tailored action checklist and the practice-by-practice detail page. The one-page summary is the shareable read: score, quartile, dimension results and the top three repairs.

Rate at least one practice to enable the report.

Compass architects governance structure, decision rights, and operating cadence. This diagnostic is a management instrument, not legal, audit, tax, or fiduciary advice; formal governance instruments should be reviewed by your own counsel.

Share this read

Generate a link that restores these exact ratings for a partner, board member, or colleague. The ratings travel inside the link itself — nothing is stored on our side.

Rate at least one practice to create a shareable link.

Adjust responses

Change any rating here and the Executive Report above re-scores immediately — no need to restart the assessment.

Edit history

No edits to undo yet.

⌘/Ctrl + Z · ⇧⌘/Ctrl + Z

Lock a baseline (or download the report) and every later adjustment is measured against it.

01 Ownership clarity
02 Board architecture
03 Decision rights
04 Information integrity
05 Risk and control
06 Succession and continuity

Saved history

Page size

Saved on this device by default — nothing leaves the browser unless you turn on account sync below. Name the organization above to label the run. The CSV export gives one row per saved run with a column per governance dimension, ready for Excel. The full-data export is the complete record: one row per practice for the current read and every saved run, with the raw answer, its dimension score and quartile, and the final enterprise result. Importing that file back restores your trend and comparisons here — imported runs carry scores only, so they cannot be re-opened in the questionnaire.

Sync across devices (optional)

Signed in. Syncing sends your saved runs to your own account — only you can read them — and pulls back anything saved on another device.

Where this leads

Readiness tells you whether governance carries load. The repair is architectural: the vertical authority stack sets the boundaries, and the Decision Rights Grid assigns every consequential decision to a single owner.

Governance architecture and the Decision Rights GridEnterprise Concentration & Performance Assessment™

The next step

Review the Executive Report with your board.

A confidential, facilitated read of your quartile results and the governance repairs they imply.

Schedule a confidential discussionAll Compass diagnostics