We build a hypothesis that with this management team, this scope of work, and this level of resources the team can develop a blockbuster⁺ product in about this time frame, give or take a few years. I now start the experiment, gather evidence, and adjust my hypothesis based on actual results. Governance includes Evidence Gathering. We look for evidence whether or not investments in R&D are proceeding according to expectations. Individuals involved in evidence gathering for governance must also have passed the compulsories. They must demonstrate control of their own biases (i.e., investment behaviors⁺). They should pursue unconventional means to gather the evidence needed, for example, employing a forensic scientist to evaluate key studies. Individuals in the governance function have all the rights and restrictions of evidence gathering based on their mastery or not of the compulsories.

Officials must build an implicit trust⁺ with the managers of the R&D pursuit, analogous to having an implicit understanding of the underlying science within the pursuit. This trust is what allows freestyle evidence gathering. Officials must be able to intuit when an investment is off track. Analogous to going beyond the objective evidence in research, they go beyond the objective evidence in promoting or demoting any particular investment.

Show me you’ve mastered the compulsories and I won’t blame you if Mother Nature didn’t cooperate. Personal security comes through mastery of the Compulsories, not through success or failure of any particular R&D pursuit. This means there is no incentive to color the evidence based on a perception that a job might be at stake. There is no incentive to clamor to join a pursuit just because it seems at the time to be so promising. Master the compulsories, as a researcher, and the governance design ensures you will always have a home, regardless of the outcome of any particular R&D pursuit. The corporation takes care of those who master the compulsories.