Every maturity model risks becoming a poster on a wall. The one the Institute publishes was built to be argued with — five levels, tested against real engagement data, with a one-page diagnostic that a team can complete honestly in under an hour.
The uncomfortable finding, three Fellows agreed in this roundtable: most enterprises that believe they're at level three or four are, by the model's own criteria, still at level two — governance exists on paper but isn't funded, staffed or exercised under real pressure.
Why level two is the trap
Level two is comfortable. There's a policy. There's a committee. There's a slide. What's missing is the thing that only shows up under pressure: a track record of the governance body actually saying no to a well-connected sponsor. Until that's happened and been survived, the model doesn't count it as level three.
A governance model that has never said no to someone powerful hasn't been tested. It's been decorated.
The one-page version of the model, along with the diagnostic questions used in this research, is published as an open framework on the Institute's site.