THE SHARED PRODUCTION SYSTEM
When work crosses organisational boundaries,
the Actual Production System extends beyond any single organisation.
As work is distributed across multiple organisations, organisational performance is no longer produced within individual organisations.
It is produced by the shared production system that spans them.
Governance follows organisational boundaries.
Performance does not.
Illustrated through a commercial aviation operating model.
Every participating organisation is individually governed.
Contracts
KPIs
SLAs
Governance
Performance reviews
Each organisation is expected to optimise its own performance.
Yet no single organisation governs the shared production system they collectively create.
No shared system owner
No deliberate system design
No shared governance
No system performance measures
No executive visibility
The result is a system that performs — without being governed as a system.
As organisational boundaries expand through outsourcing, partnerships and ecosystems, the nature of organisational risk changes.
Performance increasingly emerges from interactions between organisations.
It resides in the shared production system on which organisational performance depends.
This is the Executive Visibility Gap.
Executive Control makes the shared production system visible.
Once visible, executives can govern the system conditions that drive performance — across organisational boundaries where outcomes are actually produced.