Pause the AI Data Management policy approval and route it to Greg

July 21, 2026 at 4:12 PMstrategymedium

Situation

Steve Wallace asked for Peter Google-Doc approval on the AI Data Management Policy (an effective-date fix). Rather than approve it, Peter flagged that Greg is now exploring training open-source models and said the whole approach may need to be revisited, telling Steve to get the doc in front of Greg to ask what he wants to do. Peter declined to ratify a policy that an in-flight strategic pivot could immediately obsolete.

Reasoning

Approving the AI data policy as written would lock in an approach that Greg open-source-model exploration could obsolete, forcing an approve-then-rework cycle and potential change fees on the ISO 42001 / Align field work. The content of an AI-data-management posture depends on a strategic call - are we training our own open models - that is Greg lane, not Peter to pre-empt. So Peter pauses and pushes the decision to the person whose direction determines the policy shape.

Additional Context

Peter confirmed. Steve other doc (Technical Vulnerability Management Standard) already maps to an existing todo to review/approve routed through Nathan, so not duplicated. Stage 2 field work starts next week; Steve is carrying the sequencing.

Observed Evidence

Greg is now exploring training open source models so we might need to revisit the whole approach on this one. Can you get this doc in front of Greg and ask him what he wants to do?

Confidence Breakdown

30/35
Evidence
10/30
Pattern
18/20
Source
8/15
Corroboration

Reasoning Depth Analysis

Org Signal:Do not ratify governance artifacts that an in-flight strategic pivot may rewrite
Who Affected:Steve (owns the doc plus ISO 42001 / Align field work), Greg (owns model-training direction)
Precedent:Policy approvals wait on the strategy that governs them
Consequences:Potential ISO/audit change fees and Stage 2 field-work timing next week - Steve managing sequencing
Timing:Now - Greg open-source exploration just surfaced and Stage 2 field work is imminent

Source

reflection

AI Confidence

83%

Related Context

💬
Steve Wallace DM (7/20)

slack

Just looked at the AI Data Mgmt policy doc. It is in line with what we discussed - but Greg is now exploring training open source models so we might need to revisit the whole approach on this one. Can you get this doc in front of Greg and ask him what he wants to do?

Outcome

Still unapproved as of 2026-07-30 and stalled while Greg was at a conference. In the interim the governance gap produced the Atlas incident - an agent-driven dashboard pulling unvetted data - and Peter is now re-delivering the code-driven rule personally at the AI committee. His own read: I thought I had made the rules clear.

Rating: 2/5

Decision ID: af033cae-78d3-4762-96c7-cc6da79df927