Build a GRC Program That Works

You’ve been tasked with launching a GRC program — but where do you start?

Do you draft policies? Run a risk assessment? Buy a tool? It's overwhelming.

And the pressure is real: leadership wants results, compliance teams want clarity, and your business can’t afford to get it wrong.

Sound familiar? You’re not alone.

Many teams approach GRC with the best intentions — but without a clear roadmap, they stall.

This article gives you the clarity, structure, and real-world advice you need to build a GRC program that actually works.

Let’s break it down step-by-step so you can move forward with confidence and control.

Ready to build a streamlined, effective GRC program? Let’s dive in!

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What is GRC?

GRC stands for Governance, Risk, and Compliance.

It's how your business makes smart decisions, manages uncertainty, and stays on the right side of regulations.

According to a Quantivate study on GRC risk statistics, 62% of organizations have experienced a critical risk event in the past three years, leading to significant impacts on employee productivity and operational efficiency.

This underscores the urgency of implementing a clear and effective GRC strategy.

Put simply, GRC is your system for:

• Setting and enforcing policies (Governance)
• Identifying and addressing risks (Risk Management)
• Meeting laws, standards, and expectations (Compliance)

Done right, it protects your business, builds trust, and helps you grow safely. And organizations that prioritize GRC in their strategic agenda are more likely to build long-term resilience and competitive advantage.

In fact, companies that integrate GRC into their business strategy are 30% more likely to achieve long-term growth and regulatory resilience.

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If you're still unsure about the fundamentals, check out our guide on what GRC actually means and how it fits into your business strategy.

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What Does A GRC Program Look Like?

Before you dive into implementation, it helps to know what you're working toward.

A well-rounded GRC program includes several key components that work together to align strategy, manage risk, and ensure compliance:

• Governance Structure: Clear leadership, roles, and decision-making processes that reflect your organization's values and goals.
• Risk Management Process: A repeatable system to identify, assess, prioritize, and respond to business risks.
• Compliance Controls: Policies, procedures, and internal audits that align your organization with laws, regulations, and frameworks.
• Technology & Tooling: Platforms and automation that centralize data, streamline workflows, and improve visibility.
• Training & Awareness: Continuous education so your team understands their responsibilities and takes action.
• Monitoring & Reporting: Real-time tracking, performance indicators, and dashboards that inform leadership and drive improvements.
• Continuous Improvement: Feedback loops, audits, and change management to evolve with your organization and risk landscape.

This high-level blueprint gives you a clear destination as you move through each step of GRC implementation.

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Signs You Need A GRC Program

If you’re wondering whether now is the right time to build a GRC program, here are some red flags to watch for:

• No Single Source of Truth: Risk data, compliance evidence, and policy documents are scattered across tools and teams.
• Unclear Ownership: When something goes wrong, no one’s sure who’s responsible — or what to do next.
• Repeat Audit Findings: The same issues keep showing up in audits or assessments, with little to no progress.
• Disconnected Teams: Risk, compliance, and operations operate in silos with limited collaboration or shared visibility.
• Last-Minute Panic: Your team scrambles to prepare for audits or respond to incidents because there’s no defined process.
• Manual, Time-Consuming Work: Reporting is tedious and inconsistent, and no one’s confident it’s accurate.
• Regulatory Creep: New requirements emerge faster than your policies and processes can adapt.

If any of these sound familiar, you’re not alone.

These signs don’t mean you’re failing — they’re signals that it’s time to put structure behind your effort, and build a GRC program that works for your business.

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5 Key Considerations Before You Start

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1. Use a Risk Framework

Don’t wing it. Choose a formal framework (like ISO 31000 or COSO) to guide how you spot and respond to risks.

A strong framework gives you a structured, repeatable approach to managing uncertainty and making consistent decisions across the organization.

‍Tip: A framework helps avoid reactive decision-making by aligning everyone on how to define, measure, and treat risk.

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2. Get Leadership Buy-In Early

No exec support = no budget, no traction, no success. Get leadership on board now. GRC is a business enabler, not a compliance checkbox — and it must be framed that way to secure support.

Insight: When leadership sees GRC as a way to drive resilience and smarter decisions, you’ll get the momentum and funding to scale it effectively.

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3. Break Down Silos

If risk, audit, compliance, and IT aren’t talking, GRC won’t work. Build a cross-functional team. Collaboration uncovers blind spots, prevents duplicated efforts, and promotes shared accountability.

Sign You’re Missing This: Teams report risks differently, policies conflict, and no one owns cross-functional issues.

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4. Prepare for Change

Laws and risks change fast. Your GRC program should be agile enough to keep up. Build in the habit of reviewing policies quarterly, and assign someone to track regulatory updates.

Keep a simple “change watchlist” to monitor new laws, framework updates, and industry trends.

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5. Resource Smartly

Time, people, tools. Plan for what you need — and automate where you can. Even lightweight tools like shared docs or Kanban boards help when ownership and deadlines are clear.

Example: Use automation for evidence collection or audit workflows so your team spends less time on admin and more time on strategy.

"You don’t need to fix every risk. But you do need to own every decision."

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8 Steps to Implementing Your GRC Program

Each of these nine steps builds on the last.

They’ll help you build a GRC program that fits your business—not someone else’s checklist.

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Step #1 - Strategy & Planning

Without a strong start, everything else will wobble. Get your strategy aligned early to build momentum and avoid second-guessing.

• Start with your goals: What does success look like? One great place to begin is by making sure your efforts align GRC with business goals.
• Align GRC with business priorities
• Secure leadership support
• Define KPIs early (e.g. audit prep time, incident reduction)
• Build a roadmap: clear phases, timelines, and owners

Sign You’re Missing This: GRC feels like a side project, and no one can explain how it ties to business outcomes.

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Step #2 - Assess Your Current State

You can't improve what you don’t understand. This step helps you find gaps, overlaps, and quick wins.

• Audit your processes: What’s working? What’s not?
• Map out risks: What’s most likely to hit you?
• Review compliance: Where are you vulnerable?
• Evaluate your tools: Are they helping or hurting?
• Document everything for a clear baseline

Pro Tip: Start with one department if the full org feels too big to tackle at once.

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Step #3 - Define Roles and Responsibilities

Clarity creates accountability. If no one owns it, no one fixes it.

• Document who owns what
• Assign clear responsibilities
• Tie GRC accountability to performance goals
• Set up a governance committee with regular check-ins

Sign You’re Missing This: Issues sit unresolved because ownership is unclear or disputed.

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Step #4 - Build Your Framework and Policies

This is where your rules come to life. Choose a framework and write policies people can follow.

• Pick a framework (e.g., ISO 27001, NIST, COBIT), or explore the most relevant GRC frameworks
• Draft policies that are clear, specific, and enforceable
• Train teams on the "why" — not just the "what"
• Keep it flexible: review and adapt as your business evolves

Pro Tip: Avoid 50-page policy PDFs. Short, actionable guidance works better.

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Step #5 - Integrate Tech and Processes

Your tools should support your GRC strategy—not drive it. Integrate carefully.

• Choose tools that match your roadmap
• Automate workflows (e.g. risk tracking, audit trails)
• Ensure clean, reliable data
• Standardize and test processes

Example: Use automation to flag overdue risk treatments or collect audit evidence.

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Step #6 - Train and Raise Awareness

Your program only works if people follow it. That starts with clarity, context, and continuous reinforcement.

• Make it role-specific: Execs, legal, ops, IT — all need tailored training
• Make it real: Use stories, not just slides
• Reinforce often: Monthly touchpoints beat yearly fire drills
• Create champions in every department

Pro Tip: Run a 15-minute “what-if” drill each quarter to test readiness.

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Step #7 - Monitor and Continuously Improve

GRC is a living system. You need eyes on it to stay sharp.

• Track Key Risk Indicators (KRIs)
• Audit controls for effectiveness—not just existence
• Learn from incidents: Perform root cause analysis
• Keep evolving your program to reflect new risks and lessons

Sign You’re Missing This: You fix the same issue twice without understanding why.

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Step #8 - Report with Clarity

Reporting is your feedback loop to leadership. Show progress. Show value. Show risk.

To build reporting that speaks to your stakeholders, check out our guide on effective compliance reporting strategies.

• Create dashboards with real-time, role-based views
• Tailor reports: Execs need summaries, teams need details
• Show how GRC improves business performance
• Make reporting routine—not reactive

Pro Tip: Use a “risk story of the month” to make metrics meaningful.

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Real-World Mini Examples

Sometimes the best way to understand the value of a GRC program is to see it in action.

Here are five personal stories that show what’s possible:

• How a financial services firm got audit-ready faster: When I worked with a mid-sized financial services firm to implement ISO 27001, we began by automating their evidence collection. What used to take 40 hours over several weeks was cut to under 10. They passed their ISO 27001 audit with zero findings — and more confidence than ever.
• How a government agency slashed incident response times: I worked with a government agency that struggled with delayed incident response due to outdated processes and fragmented communication. We introduced a cross-functional GRC model and automated real-time risk alerts across departments. Within three months, their response time dropped by 40%, and collaboration between divisions improved dramatically.
• How a HealthTech provider reduced its vulnerability landscape: I worked with a HealthTech company that needed to better manage its cyber exposure to meet HIPAA requirements. We applied a risk-based approach to vulnerability management — prioritizing the threats most likely to impact patient data and critical systems. By aligning these efforts with their risk appetite and compliance obligations, they reduced their vulnerability count by over 40% within a quarter and strengthened their audit posture significantly.
• How a global manufacturer strengthened security operations: I worked with a global manufacturing company where the security operations team struggled with delayed incident resolution and unclear risk ownership. By aligning their GRC processes and creating a centralized workspace for threat and vulnerability data, we reduced duplicated efforts, streamlined communication, and cut incident response times by 40%. More importantly, they reduced their overall cyber exposure and began managing vulnerabilities more proactively.
• Boosting policy adoption in financial services: One financial client had new compliance policies, but no one was reading them. We introduced automated tracking and micro-training nudges. Policy acknowledgment jumped from 52% to 94% in less than six months.

These aren’t just wins — they’re proof that when GRC is done right, it drives results across industries, team sizes, and maturity levels.

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Quick Wins: Start Building Your GRC Program Today

If you're not ready to launch a full GRC program tomorrow, that's okay. Start small. These quick wins build momentum without requiring massive resources.

• 🗂 List your top 3 business risks — This creates a starting point for risk alignment.
• 🤝 Meet with one department lead to clarify ownership — Just one conversation can uncover gaps and unlock action.
• 🧠 Run a 15-minute “what-if” tabletop drill — Simulate an incident. Note how your team reacts. You’ll learn fast.
• 📊 Set up a shared doc or risk register — Even a simple Google Sheet beats risk conversations lost in Slack.
• 📝 Pick one policy and simplify it in plain English — Clear, readable policies get followed. Complex ones don’t.

Remember: GRC success isn’t about doing everything. It’s about doing the right things, consistently.

These small wins make GRC real. They get your team thinking, acting, and owning risk and compliance before the full program is in place.

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Measuring GRC Progress

If you're unsure how to evaluate your current efforts, start by learning how to assess your GRC maturity level.

Once your GRC program is up and running, the next challenge is making sure it’s actually working.

How do you know if you're making progress? Where should you focus next? These two tools — a maturity model and success metrics — help you measure what matters and steer your program with clarity.

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GRC Maturity Model: Know Where You Stand

Your GRC program won’t transform overnight—but knowing where you stand today helps you plan where to go next.

Use this model to assess your current level and chart a path forward.

Use this maturity model during quarterly reviews to align leadership, justify investments, and measure progress year over year. Predictive analytics, AI tools, real-time |

Aim to move one level up each quarter. Small wins = long-term success.

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Tip: Most organizations start at the Basic or Managed stage. Focus on moving up one level at a time by improving visibility, ownership, and automation.

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Question to Ask: Where do our biggest gaps lie—ownership, tooling, reporting, or coordination?

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Success Metrics to Track

Tracking the right metrics helps you prove the value of your GRC program, identify areas for improvement, and keep leadership aligned.

If you want to learn more about measuring success in GRC, check out my article on GRC Metrics & KPIs you should know.

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How to Automate GRC Processes

Automation isn’t just a tech upgrade — it’s a game-changer for speed, consistency, and scale.

As MetricStream notes, GRC automation tools eliminate manual processes, reducing the likelihood of human errors and freeing your team to focus on what matters.

Done right, GRC automation helps you:

• Eliminate repetitive manual tasks
• Improve audit-readiness with real-time documentation
• Catch issues early with built-in alerts
• Focus your team on strategy, not spreadsheets

Here’s how to approach it:

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What to Automate First

Start with high-effort, high-impact tasks:

• Risk Assessments — Use forms and workflows to standardize inputs and scoring
• Policy Acknowledgements — Track who’s read what, and follow up automatically
• Compliance Evidence Collection — Pull logs, screenshots, or control validations on a recurring schedule
• Audit Reporting — Create real-time dashboards for control owners and executives

Pro Tip: Automate reminders, reviews, and status updates — not judgment or risk decisions.

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Tool Selection Tips

Look for tools that:

• Integrate with your existing systems (HR, cloud, ticketing, etc.)
• Offer strong reporting and role-based dashboards
• Allow customization without needing a developer
• Support frameworks like ISO 27001, SOC 2, or NIST

Avoid tools that overpromise “one-click compliance” — you still need ownership, context, and control.

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Common Pitfalls to Avoid

• Automating a broken process — always define it first
• Relying solely on tech — tools enable, people execute
• Skipping training — make sure your team knows how to use it

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Want a deeper dive on GRC automation? Check out my practical guide to GRC automation.

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Conclusions & Final Takeaway

Standing up a GRC program doesn’t have to be overwhelming. It’s not about doing everything — it’s about doing the right things, consistently.

Here’s what works:

• ✅ Start with strategy — align GRC to business goals from day one
• 🔄 Build simple, repeatable processes — automate where you can
• 🧠 Train your team — awareness is half the battle
• 📊 Track what matters — use metrics to prove value and improve
• 🚀 Scale smart — grow your GRC maturity step-by-step

This isn’t red tape. It’s your runway.

A well-built GRC program doesn’t just check boxes — it drives better decisions, stronger resilience, and faster growth. Start small, move fast, and own the journey.

👉 Want more expert frameworks, real-world tips, and quick wins?

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