Governance Is Not A Crisis: It's an Opportunity

This week I sat down for a podcast interview with Simon Bergeron to explore why I call myself a couple's counselor for organizations and AI. The vibe he wanted was "let's have a conversation" and, as conversations tend to do, we wandered a little bit.

Our wandering took me back to the summer of 2007, and from that perspective, suddenly highlighted a hidden throughline in my life all the way up to today.

I've been "context engineering" my whole life.

Back in 2007, when "Hey There Delilah" was playing on the very first iPhone, I was a bright-eyed college student organizing the Brandeis University New Student Orientation. Myself and five other undergrads were responsible for orchestrating almost everything for the 800-ish new students arriving to college for the first time (or in my purview, the transfers from other institutions).

My team had deep conversations about every touchpoint a new student was going to have with the university:

• What information was shared with students before they arrived?
• What does it mean to be a college student here, versus just a college student anywhere?
• Detailed logistics of how to properly empty cars and efficiently deliver their belongings safely to their dorm room
• How to handle a crisis, or as we described it, "handling opportunities"
• Introducing 17-24 year olds to college academics, social life, safety, and each other
• How this strange place can be a place for you to become the adult you want to be

Our theme for 2007 Orientation: Light Your Fire. It fit the energy that we wanted to communicate through all of the above.

Being on this Orientation planning committee was a deeply formative experience for me. My expectations from "what's a highly productive team" to "how to onboard" to "the difference between a manager and a leader" all were set during the summer of 2007.

These 19-year old memories came flooding back when Simon (in 2026) asked me why I cared so much about starting an AI transformation project with governance, and really, what is governance?

A big, vague, abstract word: governance. Bloodless. Sterile.

I was forced, live on the recording, to show him what I really meant by "governance" and explain why I thought it was so important...and suddenly I was back:

• What information is shared with AI before even starting any work?
• What does it mean to use AI here, versus just an AI user anywhere?
• Detailed logistics of how to properly and efficiently leverage AI safely for their work
• How to handle a crisis, or as I describe it, "handling opportunities"
• Introducing 2026 professionals to AI's purpose, potential, safety, and power users
• How this strange technology can be a place for you to become the adult you want to be

Oh my god, I'm still an Orientation leader.

(I hope Simon doesn't cut it out, but I had one of those life-is-a-film-reel moments seeing myself delivering new student/employee orientation at all my prior jobs. There were a lot of frames in that flashback, so I probably went listless for an uncomfortable number of seconds)

I realized that all the thoughtfulness that goes into onboarding a new person to a strange place is what I think of when I say the word 'governance.' Sure, there are policies, SOPs, and guardrails that go into good governance practices, but the soft inner heart of "Who are we, who could you become, and how will we make that not scary" is what's really beating inside the employee handbook.

This kinda-philosophical kinda-aspirational experience crafting isn't sexy content for a LinkedIn thirst trap. It's not talking about ROI, or efficiency gains, or hours saved. In that context- where AI is seen as a productivity accelerant- governance sounds like the brakes that you probably should have but wish you didn't need.

In that world, AI governance is HR paperwork constructed by the Legal and IT team that lives as a PDF on a Notion page somewhere. Bloodless. Sterile.

In my world, AI governance is Orientation. It's an experience. It invites people into a strange place, helps them understand what this place stands for, opens doors for people to discover new ways of working, and makes that whole process fun and meaningful. I have 19 years of evidence that this approach is what truly changes behavior.

Welcome to AI- let's light your fire.

A TL;DR from the CRO

Policy documents that nobody can find or understand just makes me howl.

-Roman Noodles, Chief Ruff Officer

It's finally spring again in Boston and there's one thing I'm waiting for that might never come.

My mushrooms.

​Almost a year ago, I acquired some logs and a blue oyster mushroom growing kit with the hope that I could become a MushMan. As I drilled holes and inserted mushroom spawn, I had dreams of a bountiful harvest of mycological delights. Miso soup! Mushroom frittata! A deeper appreciation of fungi!

In the fall, I saw some mycellium peeking out from some of the logs so all winter long I was having these shroomy dreams. "Just wait until spring" I told myself. "It can take up to a year" I reminded myself.

It's almost a year. And there's nothing there. No mycellium. No flushes. No miso soup.

Since it's literally a pile of logs behind my house, I'm going to leave them there and hope for the best. Life finds a way.

Next week is my neighborhood's springtime celebration and I will, as promised a year ago in this very newsletter, go tell the mushroom girl about my misadventure and ask for advice. At least I'm not Patient Zero in the real life version of The Last Of Us.

Luck is about repetition,

Dan from Learn to Scale​

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​PS. This was my mush-spiration a year ago.​