Be honest.

Are you also a poet?

A PowerPoint poet?

You know – the kind who writes beautiful architecture principles in elegant slides, perfect fonts, inspiring colors…

and then never looks at them again.

Every organization has them:

“Reuse before buy, buy before build.”

“Data is a shared asset.”

“Security by design.”

They sound good.

They look good.

They just rarely do anything.

Because without governance, those principles are just that – PowerPoint poetry.

We love principles because they make us sound structured.

They’re clean. Aspirational. Easy to present.

But principles without governance are like compasses without maps –

they tell you where north is, but not how to get anywhere.

Governance isn’t about control or bureaucracy.

It’s about accountability – about turning principles into real decisions. 

Without it, we end up with beautifully aligned slides and misaligned behavior.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth.

Governance is boring.

It doesn’t get applause.

No one puts “Governance Champion” in their LinkedIn headline.

But it’s the unsung hero of enterprise architecture –

the quiet discipline that makes the big, shiny projects possible.

Good governance doesn’t slow you down.

Bad governance does.

Good governance is friction that creates focus –

not bureaucracy that kills momentum.

It’s the invisible framework that lets autonomy thrive.

It’s what makes principles real.

So why does it matter?

Because without governance, we lose credibility.

We become the poets of PowerPoint –

artists of intention, not agents of action. 

Our principles sound great – 

until pressure tests them.

Deadlines. Vendors. Shortcuts.

That’s when they fail – if no one’s watching.

And that’s the real risk – not chaos, but irrelevance.

So here’s the challenge:

Next time you talk about principles, don’t start with what they are.

Start with how they’re kept alive.

Who owns them?

Who enforces them?

Who makes sure they still make sense six months later?

Because architecture isn’t just about designing systems –

it’s about designing discipline.

And without discipline, those slides of yours?

They’re not strategy.

They’re just poetry.

PowerPoint poetry.