I asked ChatGPT 3.5: “What are principles of Policy Governance?” ChatGPT got some aspects of Policy Governance right, some wrong, and some were simply AWOL.
The creator of Policy Governance, John Carver (ChatGPT got that part right), identified 10 principles of the governance system. ChatGPT arrived at seven, of which only a few are close to the actual principles.
Here are just a few of the principles it either missed or got wrong.
Board Leadership: ChatGPT contends that “the board’s primary responsibility is provide leadership to the organization. This involves setting direction, vision, and goals, as well as monitoring progress toward them.”
Not quite. A board should provide leadership and it sets direction, but Policy Governance does not require it to set vision and goals. It could set a vision if that vision speaks to something beyond the organization. This differs from a more traditional vision which focus on the organization itself.
And the board does not set goals. Instead, it sets Ends policies, which are not the same as goals. If Ends policies and goals were the same, Carver would have called them goals!
On that note, ChatGPT describes Ends policies as: “The board focuses on defining the desired outcomes or ‘ends’ that the organization exists to achieve. These ends policies articulate the long-term impacts or benefits the organization seeks to create for its stakeholders.”
True: Ends policies do include outcomes, impacts, or benefits that the board intends the organization to produce. But saying that it creates these for its stakeholders is inaccurate. Boards that use Policy Governance recognize that there is a world of stakeholders who have some sort of connection to the organization.
Through a Policy Governance lens, stakeholders may include shareholders or some other group to whom the board holds itself accountable, employees, suppliers, funders, those the organization seeks to benefit, those who might be negatively impacted by the organization’s operations, etc.
Among those stakeholders, the only group that should be identified in the Ends policies is the intended recipients of the outcomes, impact, or benefits.
Ends policies should also include statements of what it is worth to achieve the intended outcomes, impact, or benefits for the intended beneficiaries. ChatGPT missed that altogether.
Chat GPT includes Accountability as one of the principles. “Both the board and the executive are held accountable for their respective roles and performance. The board holds the executive accountable for achieving the organization’s ends within the established limitations,…” On that it is correct, although it would help to refer to a reasonable interpretation of each of those policies.
But further, on accountability, ChatGPT states: “… the executive holds the board accountable for providing clear direction and support.” Certainly, the board is wise to provide clear direction and support, but saying the board is accountable to the CEO/Executive Director misses the point completely. The board’s primary accountability is to the shareholders or, in non-profit organizations, those who are similar to shareholders. Sometimes we refer to these folks as the moral owners or the principals. Whichever label we use, the board makes its decisions on their behalf.
Whereas more traditional approaches view governance as “management one-step up,” John Carver designed the system as “ownership one-step down.” This is the foundation for the real 10 principles of Policy Governance.
But why does it matter? Policy Governance is designed as a universal, internally coherent system. Those of us who have worked with the real system over time, recognize that its benefits are lost when parts of the system are missing.
ChatGPT’s response includes a disclaimer: “ChatGPT can make mistakes.” It got that part right!
Perhaps it will read this article and make a few corrections?