It is interesting to reflect on the underlying principles which John Carver has incorporated into his Policy Governance® model. Carver's genius lies in having been able to take a number of simple, common-sense concepts, and articulate them into a set of principles that are internally consistent, so as to provide a complete system or model that can be applied to virtually any organization with a governing board. While many of the individual principles have value in their own right, when formulated into the Model, they prove the adage that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Removing any of the principles damages the system.
Those who think that Policy Governance is too inflexible, or complain that “one size does not fit all” have not understood that the model is not a set of rules, such as, "Thou shalt have no committees," but rather a set of principles to apply to your particular situation – "have committees if and when using them does not violate any of the principles.” For example, don’t create a committee to help the staff do work that’s already been delegated to the CEO, because that would violate the principle that if there is a CEO, the board delegates only to the CEO and holds the CEO accountable; don’t create a committee if doing so will interfere with the board’s ability to speak authoritatively with one voice.
Two principles in particular relate to the roles in an organization: (1) The board connects its authority and accountability to the owners, and has a responsibility to provide to the organization the perspective of the those owners. (2) The board is situated as a link between owners and the operating organization, so the work of governance is quite separate from the work of management.
These are not new concepts. Robert Greenleaf, writing in the 1940's and '50's, stated, "Trustees have a significant role that they can play best because they are able and informed people who are NOT managers … I argue for an arrangement in which trustees provide the vision and purpose of what is to be done and managers get it done." [Emphasis added.] He goes on to suggest that "the managerial mind … is not likely to generate the absolutely basic visions that give purpose and direction … The managerial mind is limited by its first priority to get things done—in the immediate—and to keep the institution afloat from day to day. To be good at getting things done, a manager must concentrate on the short range … The long range, the indefinite future framed against a good view of the distant past, requires a different kind of thinking … I did not pull my contentions out of thin air. They rest on considerable experience as a member of the corporate staff of a huge bureaucracy and in a variety of trusteeships, both capped by extensive consulting experience to both trustees and managers."1
1On Becoming a Servant Leader, Robert Greenleaf, Ed. Don Frick and Larry Spears (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996), pp. 222ff.
**Your Organization: What is it For? John Argenti (London: McGraw-Hill Book Company Europe, 1993), pp. 203 ff.
This article may be reprinted without charge under the following conditions:
The author retains full copyright.
The byline is included with the article as it appears
Credits include the following statement: "Policy Governance® is a registered service mark of Dr. John Carver. Used with permission."
The Governance Coach™ is advised of the reprint and a copy of the publication in which the article appears is provided to The Governance Coach™