Most governance systems still assume failure happens as a visible event.
But a lot of operational failure starts as normalization.
Small overrides.
Repeated exceptions.
Quiet boundary erosion.
Escalation pathways that technically exist but stop getting used.
That’s where Governance Lag becomes dangerous.
The organization thinks governance is still functioning because the documentation remains intact.
Meanwhile runtime behavior has already adapted around it.
The drift usually becomes visible long after the operational pattern has stabilized.
Policies describe intent.
Time turns behavior into infrastructure.
Behavior is the most honest data there is.
Canonical Source:
https://github.com/Hollow-house-institute/Hollow_House_Standards_Library
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20044740
ORCID:
https://orcid.org/0009-0009-4806-1949
Amy Pierce Bui
Founder, Hollow House Institute
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