REALBoard Buzz™
Board To The Rescue…Or Not
From time to time I hear from a board chair who says something like this, “We have a crisis that needs to be dealt with and we’re not sure where it goes on the agenda.” Inevitably, the image of a sea rescue helicopter comes to mind. I picture the board climbing down...
What About Term Limits For Board Members?
It is important that we have term limits for board members so we can get fresh blood. We need term limits; otherwise how do we get rid of poor board members? These are two very common reasons for setting term limits for a board. You can add to this list of supposedly...
Family Business, Family Values and Policy Governance
Family businesses make up a larger percentage of the economy than many people realize. The Family Firm Institute (FFI) notes that family firms * account for two thirds of businesses worldwide, between 70%-90% of global GDP and 50%-80% of jobs in the majority of...
Could this Headline be about Your Organization?
It is the headline that board members dread: “Former Treasurer Charged with Defrauding [name of the organization]”. Yet, in the past month, I’ve caught two of those headlines in my local newspaper. It’s by no means the first as I’ve seen several such headlines over...
The Relevance Question
In 1973, Steven Sasson began working for Kodak. Within two years, he had created some devices that acted as the first digital cameras. They were quite inefficient – particularly by today’s standards of digital photography – taking as much as 23 seconds to record the...
The Servant Leader?
Serving on a board takes commitment, not only to serve but also to understand what your job is as a board member. A board using Policy Governance® has three main jobs. First, to connect with and be accountable to the owners; second, to write policy that directs and...
ABC – Are you a Micro-Zombie?
Does your board have a habit of being alone together? I’ve witnessed too many board meetings where board members’ smart phones are always close at hand. They may be blatantly obvious, they may be on vibrate, they may be surreptitiously checked under the table, or...
Who Can I Talk To?
A question that often arises as a board is considering adopting or has recently implemented Policy Governance® is whether board members can still talk to staff or others in the organization. Others, including staff, can also share this uncertainty. I am not surprised...
Board Leadership, Blue Skies and Growing Up
Children ask questions that are both profound and require clear, age-appropriate responses. “Why is the sky blue?” Why does the sky have clouds?” “Why is there pink, red, and orange in the sky when the sun sets?” Behind each of these questions is a whole lot of...
Making the Worth in Ends Policies Worthwhile
Many of us working with Policy Governance have long advocated that boards should specify meaningful results in Ends policies rather than getting hung up on how to measure the results. What I hadn’t fully appreciated was how significant precise statements of meaningful...