Making decentralisation work by letting go of control

What is in a name

Decentralisation, distributed publishing, self-serve, upskilling. Whatever your organisation calls it, the goal is usually the same: letting more people across the charity publish content.

However, the reality often feels like a battle for control.

Digital teams worry about brand reputation and quality. Content owners in other teams worry about bureaucracy and being slowed down.

We recently discussed this with our content strategy community of practice. It became clear that for decentralisation to work, we have to stop treating it as a compliance issue and start treating it as a relationship issue.

The hidden power dynamics

Most decentralisation processes fail because they ignore the power dynamics at play.

When a central team sets the rules and “allows” others to publish, they are holding onto the power. They become the gatekeepers. This creates a dynamic where other teams feel like they are jumping through hoops rather than doing their jobs.

One stakeholder described self-serve to us as: “shorthand for ‘get out of my way’”.

This suggests a breakdown in trust. To fix it, we need to look at the behaviours of the central team. Are you operating from a place of curiosity and support, or are you operating from a place of cynicism and control?

Respect different types of expertise

A central digital team often has deep platform knowledge, but they are rarely the subject matter experts.

Content owners in other teams are the ones who truly understand their audiences’ specific needs, concerns, and language.

Decentralisation works best when you combine these two different, but equally necessary, viewpoints.

Reframing standards: support over scrutiny

The biggest fear with decentralisation is a drop in quality. The knee-jerk reaction is often to introduce strict policing - signing off every comma or running random “spot checks” on work.

But spot checks are problematic. They imply that the central team is the teacher and the content owner is the naughty pupil. It is inequitable and damages the psychological safety needed for people to do their best work.

Instead of policing, try creating shared standards.

1. Co-create the guidance

Don’t just hand down a PDF of rules. Ask teams what they need to know. Build the guidance around their reality, not just your preferences. This shifts the power balance and gives them ownership of the result.

2. Use checklists as safety nets, not tests

A publishing checklist is a great tool, but frame it as a help, not a hurdle. It ensures the basics—like headers and link text—are correct. It empowers the publisher to know they have got it right before they hit the button, rather than waiting for someone else to tell them they got it wrong.

3. Review to learn, not to punish

Instead of spot checks, run “content clinics” or retro sessions. Look at the performance data together. If a piece of content didn’t work, ask “what can we learn?” rather than “who broke the rules?”.

Accepting the messiness

If you want people to take ownership, you have to accept that things won’t be perfect immediately.

In the early stages of digital maturity, inconsistency is a feature, not a bug. It means people are trying.

We discussed this in our community of practice. There is often a sense of “failure” when standards slip. But this is a natural part of the learning process.

If you clamp down too hard in the name of consistency, you kill the momentum. You signal that following the process is more important than the outcome.

Building a community, not a hierarchy

The most successful examples we have seen don’t look like a hierarchy. They look like a community.

Creating a community of practice for your content owners changes the dynamic completely. It becomes a space to:

• share skills rather than just teaching them

• peer review work in a safe environment

• discuss shared challenges without fear of judgment

This approach respects the expertise of everyone in the room. The digital team brings the platform knowledge; the content owners bring the subject matter expertise. Both are necessary.

Start small and build trust

If this feels overwhelming, don’t try to change the whole organisation at once. Focus on one team or service.

Find a “warm” team - perhaps one that is already engaged or has a specific need. Work with them to map their needs. Prove that the decentralised model helps them achieve their goals, not just yours.

When you focus on people and relationships rather than just processes and tools, you build the trust required to make decentralisation work.

Everyone is a student and everyone is a teacher

To make this work, you need a culture where everyone—regardless of their job title—is willing to learn from others and share what they know.

This removes the “teacher and naughty pupil” dynamic and creates a community of practice where everyone feels safe to contribute.

How we can help

If you are struggling with the friction of decentralisation, or want to build a more equitable content culture, we would love to chat. Get in touch to see how we can help you build a team that works better together.