REALBoard Buzz™
Word Smith & Word Smart
*Originally published February 14, 2017 I draft a lot of documents – reports, articles like this one, policies, memos, letters, bylaws, social media posts, etc. If you write a lot, it is easy to get caught up in trying to find the precise words to say what you mean....
Board Monitoring Masterclass: From Subjective Reports to Measurable Outcomes
This Governance Masterclass with Richard Stringham, GSP, demonstrates how boards can effectively monitor policies that seem "unmonitorable." Using a real-world example, the video walks through the transformation of qualitative governance requirements into objective,...
Change or Growth?
(Originally published May 13, 2021) Every now and then, I run into a board that has been using Policy Governance®, often for some time, and decides it wants a “change” – just to try something different. Almost always, this desire is precipitated by a significant...
Driving Lessons
Each Sunday I receive an email blog1. There’s a mix of quotations and short paragraphs. Always thought-provoking, often insightful, sometimes motivating. A while back I read the following quote from Geoff Colvin: “When we learn to do anything new—how to drive, for...
Leveraging Value from the Board’s Meeting Time
The next time you’re in a board meeting think about the cost for each hour of that meeting. Estimate the hourly rate for each board member and each staff member in the room. Add those numbers to get a total hourly rate. Is your board adding value worth the cost of...
Should Your Board Give the Executive Director Advice?
“If I hear one more [board member] suggest MacKenzie Scott as a funding source I'm gonna lose it!” Source: An Executive Director of a not-for-profit enterprise on Reddit. The rest of the Reddit conversation was insightful. Various Executive Directors of nonprofit...
Board Oversight: Do Your Board’s Monitoring Reports Stand up to Scrutiny?
When your board is presented with a report that things are on track, is there actual evidence to make that case? Join me, Richard Stringham, Senior Consultant & Partner, as I show some common place, yet less than credible monitoring reports. I also provide some...
Board Reports: Are You Tracking Activities or Impact?
https://youtu.be/Q5ffASKcFmU Too often governing boards are absorbed with reports about what the organization is busy doing. Instead, your board’s monitoring reports should focus on impact. Join us as we look at the various ways that boards get caught up in measuring...
How Does Your Board Hold Your CEO Accountable?
First of all, let’s clarify a term. When I say CEO, I mean the sole staff person to whom the board delegates. That could be a CEO, Executive Director, President, Senior or Lead Pastor, etc. Does your board subject your CEO to the invisible expectations guessing game?...
Unlocking the Value of Every Boardroom Voice
In boardrooms everywhere, some of the most valuable insights go unspoken. I witnessed this firsthand when working with a board where two members seemed to fade into the wallpaper during crucial discussions. Their perspectives remained locked behind a barrier of...