In Part 3 of the webinar recap series on Governance: A Fresh Take for Contingent Workforce Leaders, we focus on the people side, specifically how to win stakeholder buy-in and make new practices stick.
Governance rarely fails because of bad design. More often, it fails because people don’t adopt it. That’s why stakeholder buy-in and the behavioral change that comes with it were a critical focus of the webinar.
Cindy Baker-Bailey, VP of Global Workforce Solutions at Atrium, put it simply: governance is never one-size fits all. “You have to customize it based on business priorities and where the organization is today,” she said. What feels overly complex to one organization may feel insufficient to another, depending on maturity, scale, and risk exposure.
Different stakeholders also define success differently. Finance looks for cost control and predictability. Legal focuses on mitigation and compliance. Business leaders care about speed, quality, and outcomes. Governance gains traction when it clearly supports those priorities rather than competing with them.
Chris Radvansky, Principal Consultant at RAD Consultants, added another important layer, explaining that accountability must come with both skin in the game and bandwidth. “If someone is accountable,” he said, “they need the time and authority to actually do the work.” Without that balance, governance becomes performative rather than practical.
The panel also addressed concerns about red tape. Cindy challenged the idea that governance inherently slows organizations down. “If it’s done well, it actually removes friction,” she said. Clear guidelines, documented exceptions, and transparent escalation paths prevent confusion and last-minute fire drills.
Chris captured this idea with a memorable analogy: “Brakes aren’t on a car to slow you down. They’re there so you can go fast safely.” Governance works the same way by creating guardrails that allow teams to move faster with confidence.
Taken together, the conversation pointed to a clear takeaway. Lasting change happens when people understand their role, see value in the process, and trust that it supports how the business operates. When priorities are aligned and responsibilities are clear, adoption becomes part of how work gets done,
Want to hear how leaders drive adoption in the real world?
Watch the full webinar recording for practical examples and peer insights, and download our Governance Role-Mapping Template to help align stakeholders and reinforce new behaviors.
Stay tuned for the final post in this series, where we focus on assessing maturity and turning insight into action.
