07 July 2010

John Carver's Boards that Make a Difference (2006)

Welcome back!

There are some good books on boards, group process, decision making, servant leadership,  consensus building and other topics that are helpful to boards and board members. I have found only one that provides an operating system covering a comprehensive approach to board governance that allows board to reach their full potential to board and organizational accountability, a tool for defining values as explicit board level policies and linkage to real or "moral" ownership. For those interested in learning more either before or after a training session with Capacity partnership Group on board governance (Policy Governance), I recommend:




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02 July 2010

Introduction Questions for Board Leaders

Welcome!

These questions are to help you begin thinking about your role as a board member and work of boards of directors for your organization.  Think about these and give it your best shot to answer them on paper and bring your thoughts to our training workshop.
  • What is the board for?
  • What job outputs should the board produce?
  • What is the relationship between a board and the organization’s staff?
  • What difficulties has your board faced?
  • What questions do you have today about boards?
  • Does the board have a model or resource to look toward for help, structure or advice?
 Boards do not necessarily do what they need to do or hold themselves accountable for job outputs. After you have thought about these questions, go to this link and read some basic definitions and review your answers. This is were we will begin our work together at the training workshop.

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Introduction to Board Development--Board Retreat Prep

Welcome! I have posted this as preparation for participants in an upcoming workshop on board function and board governance for a nonprofit organization. If you are one of those participants, we will begin by reviewing these concepts sand setting a direction for our training session and framing the work of the board. I hope that you find this challenging and stimulated to participate in discussion.

Introduction to Board Development


The essential work of a board of directors of any organization must be to add value with job outputs that are specific to the role of the board (not competitive with staff) and for which the board holds itself accountable.
  • Explicit Board Level Policy. Articulating clearly what the organization is to accomplish for its moral ownership (or membership)—more than what is keeping the organization busy but what will make a difference in the world because the organization does what it says it should.
  • Monitoring of results and activities. Develop accountability as an organizational characteristic and providing assurance that the expected results were produced and unacceptable situations and circumstances were avoided, and the cost was worth the result.
  • Linkage to real or “moral” ownership. As the board understands its trustee function, it develops a strategy of linkage to and understanding of the membership to act on its behalf.

These job outputs are the unique contribution of a board of directors that no other person or group can accomplish. It is further the board’s responsibility, once these job outputs are understood, to hold itself accountable for its own work. It is through this that the board can accomplish its duty of care, duty of loyalty and duty of obedience.

Governance Definition

Board governance is the job of the group granted full accountability and full authority for value produced on behalf of those who morally if not legally own the organization. It is the servant-leadership work of the highest and initial authority within the organization.

In this training we design and utilize a comprehensive set of integrated distinctions that, when consistently applied, allow governing boards to realize their accountability. The process is called Policy Governance®.

By making policy, the board governs proactively through explicit statements of values rather than reactively or through event-specific decisions. Boards must be at least as disciplined as they expect their staffs to be.

To learn more, see this link.

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