Oversight is a queasy word. It can mean either to oversee or to overlook, which are complete opposites of each other (even though ‘see’ and ‘look’ are synonyms, not antonyms). However, in a perhaps ironic twist of fate, it is easy to overlook the things you do not oversee.

Oversight, that is, to oversee, is an important, if not critical, process of good governance. Without oversight, it can be difcult to understand what is working and what isn’t. And, as Peter Drucker famously said, (only) what gets measured gets managed.

Things have a habit of descending into chaos. The second law of thermodynamics confrms this. Without oversight, then, processes also descend into chaos, prohibiting growth and allowing risks to fester into issues.