Leaders and readers of this eNews fall into several categories:
- CEOs, senior team members and church leaders who work with board members
- Board members
- People who will serve on boards in the future (Listen up!)
So let's be real here: much of what happens in the boardroom (nonprofit and corporate) is highly dysfunctional. In my opinion,
most governance fuzziness emanates
from unvoiced assumptions about
the board's role and the CEO's role.
Role clarity should always prompt a discussion about governance models: the Hands-on model, John Carver's
Policy Governance model, the
Board Policies Manual tool, and so many other options. Yet with all of these models and resources available with a simple Google search, why is there still so much dysfunction?
(Maybe no one reads this stuff?)
So here's a resource—with a very unique writing style—that will help clarify board roles and responsibilities. The author begins with the key question: what's Job #1 for a board?
According to Eugene H. Fram, the most important job of the board is “to find the best possible person to manage the organization,
then stand back
and let that person manage.”
“Volunteer directors who micromanage their agencies are, in blunt terms, cost centers for nonprofits, since they affect staff time so dramatically.” (Preach it!)
“Good governance helps eliminate the many hidden costs associated with pursuing activities that have nothing to do with the organization's purpose.” (Amen!)
“Your board should not be primarily focused on outcomes (e.g. success of specific programs) but concerned more about assessing the 'impacts' of those outcomes.” (High five!)
In putting flesh on the bones of the
“generative mode” of governance (read my review of
Governance as Leadership: Reframing the Work of Nonprofit Boards), the author says boards must focus more on the “what if” and other long-term questions.
“Because directors' questions in this mode are different from the questions that they ask when day-to-day operations take up the agenda, they will find themselves focused on identifying available opportunities and vulnerabilities.
“This enables board members to tap their special expertise and professional experience in board discussions. To draw upon this outside wealth of knowledge and perspectives, nonprofit executives should avoid acculturating board members to the 'conventional wisdom' of the organization.
“In practical terms that means, for example,
that a director with marketing strategy experience
should be asked to help uncover new markets to serve
but not asked to write advertising copy.”
Then Fram adds, “Separating operational and policy issues is more complicated than it sounds.”
Oh! I haven't shared this bonus factor: The entire book (240 pages) is a series of short email conversations between a fictitious nonprofit CEO (an acknowledged expert and speaker on the “Corporate” board model) and a golfing buddy who just joined a nonprofit board.
Fram mentions two board sins, analysis paralysis and rubber-stamping.His solution? Use the “Corporate Model” to focus the board on policy, not operations. The quick-reading email dialogue between two friends eliminates the typical boring governance rhetoric (yada, yada, yada) and replaces the blue sky stuff with in-the-trenches, to-the-point conversation and thoughtful next steps.
About every other chapter, I would inject, “Wait a minute. That wouldn't work!” And then in the next paragraph, the rookie board member would email my objection to his mentor—and the practical drill-down response would satisfy. (I may steal this brilliant idea: an entire book of email conversations. It works.)
The emails are segmented into 12 chapters including:
- The Corporate Model: A Board Alternative
- How the Model Is Structured: Intentional Simplicity
- Assessment and the Model: The CEO Cannot Be Insecure
- The Model and the Future: The Planning and Resource Committee
- The Model at Work: The Executive Committee and Its Responsibilities
- The Model Creates a New Culture: Trust Is the Critical Factor
- The Model and Commitment: Board Members Must Be Involved
Practical charts are included like the five lists detailing the differences between the Corporate Model and the Traditional Model. The last chapter asks, “Is your organization ready for the Corporate Model?” and features 23 pages of very, very practical Q & A.
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