The benefits of Policy Governance are multiple. Policy Governance^® provides a clear system that will help your Board:

• be accountable in the position of trust in which it has been placed by its shareholders (in equity corporations) or “moral owners” (in public sector and not-for-profit organizations)
• provide strategic leadership to the organization—the board's key responsibility—by clearly defining, on behalf of the owners, what human needs are to be met, for whom, and at what worth
• distinguish clearly between Ends (see below) and Means (ways of doing things)
• establish clarity between the roles of board and management
• unleash the creativity of management while holding management rigorously accountable for delegated areas
• be involved in appropriate decisions without "meddling" or "rubber stamping"
• set parameters for acceptable organizational performance and for itself by establishing broad policies in four logical categories that make intuitive sense

Policy Governance is the registered service mark of John Carver. The authoritative website for the Policy Governance^® model can be found at www.carvergovernance.com

With these policies in place, the Board can delegate the achievement of the Ends to the CEO, be assured that they are in fact being achieved, and that the manner in which this occurs does not exceed the Board's boundaries of prudence and ethics. This assurance is based, not on trust, but on a carefully structured monitoring process.

For a brief description of the principles of the Carver Policy Governance Model; what it is / what it is not, click here.