REALBoard Buzz™
Board Education or Meddling in Operations?
If a board informally hears that staff is struggling to achieve a particular Ends policy, and the board doesn’t know why, how might it proceed? Assuming no violations of Executive Limitations, isn’t the implementation of Ends policies the sole prerogative of the CEO?...
Connecting the Dots: How Strategic Foresight Informs Ends
The board’s job is to look at the big picture, to think strategically and to envision the future. Future thinking applied to real world situations is strategic foresight. In Policy Governance, the board’s most important job is defining Ends; in other words, what the...
Getting The Right Board Information
In a previous life, I worked at a non-profit organization where I was a direct report to the Executive Director. Board meetings always presented a “crunch time” as we scrambled to prepare reports about what we had been doing in the various programs and projects that...
Our Organization Needs a Real Working Board! Doesn’t It?
A Board was reflecting on its work at the end of the year and was contemplating what it could do better in the next year. When a Board member reflected that the Board could do a better job governing rather than spending most of its time helping the Executive Director...
Budgets are Bad??!!
[Note: if you are not a church, there’s still a lesson in this blog.] “A budget is the most overworked, overused, misunderstood, and inaccurate piece of fiction that a church board will ever see. It’s like a bad steak which is chewed on, gnawed on, and eventually...
But Dad!…
One of my colleagues (let’s call him Dave) is in the (un)enviable position of parenting a teenager. This seems to always be a challenge for both parents and teens alike. Recently, Dave was mentioning to me his frustration in managing his daughter’s curfew. On a Friday...
A New Approach to Resolutions
Many of us begin the New Year with a list of “resolutions” – a list of “what” we are going to do differently this year. Within a few months, or weeks, or even days, we have broken many of those resolutions. I wonder if the reason is that we began with the wrong...
Merry Christmas From The Governance Coach™
The Power of Words
“Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs.” Pearl Strachan Hurd Words, more powerful than an atom bomb? Words are risky. We must think about our words carefully! Risk is the possibility that something bad will happen. In Policy Governance® is...
Three Steps to Improve Board Effectiveness
You may be an Executive Director, CEO, or Pastor who is concerned about board effectiveness and whether or not the board of the organization you serve has the proper strategic mindset to govern well. I know some foundations also are concerned about “board development”...