This being the Good News Issue, I was asked to share some profound information about how groups of people can work together with joy and effectiveness. Often a group of good folks will be hanging out at their local coffee shop or bar and they'll come up with a great new way to make our lives better. We talk, we become enthusiastic, we divide up the responsibilities and we go out into the world to make a difference. We get together every month for progress reports and to share information. Eventually, we start to grow, our ideas strike the cords of many of our friends and they want to join. We grow some more. We organize.
Then it gets a little more complicated. Joe said he was going to follow through on that project but no one heard back from him. Shari was supposed to come to the last two meetings but couldn't. Somehow it ends up being a small group of committed individuals that seems to be doing all the work. What's up with that?
Or you might be asked to join a really cool organization by a friend of yours that sits on the board already. You think: Neat. I like this cause, and I want to make a difference. But when you first get nominated or elected onto a board you spend a lot of time, just trying to figure out who the hell everybody is and how they relate to everything that's going on.
Then the fun begins! If you're lucky, you get appointed to some committees--the membership meeting, the finance committee meeting, the fund raising committee meeting, the committee that gets together even though we can't really remember why meeting. Basically, you spend the rest of your life in the never-never land of committee meetings, feeling like you would like to accomplish something, but now you've even forgotten what that might have been.
But, the food and social contacts aren't bad.
Or the opposite might happen; you get nominated or elected to a board. You charge in, take control of the organization, ascend to the presidency and make your mark. That's what a good leader is for, isn't it?
All of these situations are slightly exaggerated, but you get my point. We often start with an idea or hope to change something and end up being chewed up and spit out, or worse yet--being slightly dissatisfied, change is too hard.
There are those of you out there that are thinking as you read this "Our board works pretty well, we get things done". But I challenge you. Think back to the last board meeting you attended and ask yourself: what was on the agenda? Call to order, president's report, staff reports, committee reports, old business, new business. What time frame is the board dwelling in primarily, as exemplified by the agenda? The past. That's what reports are, the past. Boards primarily spend their precious 24 hours a year in dealing with things that have already happened. A governing board is responsible for the entire organization; do you really think that hearing reports is the best use of its time? Or is there the possibility that a board could operate differently? Be more profound in its effects, decide the results, have its arms around the organization without having its fingers in it! No more micromanagement and no more rubber-stamping. Clear delineation of who should do what, Accountability! Powerful delegation, as well as great vision. Great board meetings that truly engage the board members in discussion. Could it be? Well, I'm here to tell you its true. There is a way of running a board that engenders all these things as well as much more.
Policy Governance is a system developed by a brilliant fellow named John Carver. Not much of a marketer (you can tell by the name) but quite the smart guy. Twenty years ago when he had a lot of time on his hands, he decided to turn his thoughts to the working of boards. He pondered and thought and pondered and experimented and then pondered some more. And as he experimented on those first poor souls, he developed a system of board governance that is quite simply, brilliant. This is not "The 10 Greatest Ideas for Your Board". Think of it like this. On your computer you run windows, then you install all that cool software because that's what you want to play. Policy GovernanceT (or PG) is the windows operating system upon which boards place their individual values. It's just a tool to help us to make a difference. My friend Bill, who works with boards as well, asked me to guess what John Carver's greatest disappointment, was. Of course I said he wishes he were better at marketing. But he said no, it was that someone had not come up with something that works better. Has not yet come up with something that works better. My point is, our focus is not this is the system of systems, when we find something that works better lets go for it, but if there is a tool that helps boards make a difference, lets use it!
OK now down to the nuts and bolts. What I'm going to do is share with you a few of the principles behind PG. There are books on the subject as well as articles, newsletters, etc. for those ambitious souls that want to know more.
1. Connection with the ownership.
A board is a group of people that represent a larger group of people that won't all fit around the table. Trusteeship. So what does that mean? A Board, before anything, needs to determine who it is there to represent. With some organizations it's easy to determine. But you would be surprised how many board members are not on the same page with whom they represent. For example, consider a Plumbers Association (or any membership association); does it represent all the Plumbers in the community? only the member Plumbers? or the plumbers and the member hardware stores? Do city council members represent their individual area or the whole community? Until these questions are decided it's impossible to determine on whose behalf we are acting. There are no right or wrong answers, but a board needs to come to a consensus about the issue before proceeds. Once a board has determined who it represents, it must gather information from that ownership. Its ideas and thoughts will determine how the board makes decisions. It's not enough to simply have open board meetings; it requires a much more active roll, reaching out into their ownership and soliciting information. Asking and not just assuming that you know how people feel about an issue. You have to get out there and ask. Talk to them, have coffee, have a drink, ask them to come to your board meeting. Its not a novel idea but how many boards do we know that ever ask their ownership at each meeting for input. At every meeting the board should be garnering information from the ownership to make decisions.
OK, let me give you an example. Let's say there is an organization called the Kick Ass Bikers Association. It's a member organization with a board of 12 bikers. The board had a heated discussion about just who their ownership was (no guns or anything). It was decided that they didn't exist for everybody that owns a damn bike, but specifically for the dudes and dudettes that had coughed up the money to join their organization.
So at each meeting they arranged for different member bikers to come in and discuss their respective opinions on issues they were trying to decide. One of the issues was: should the Kick Ass Bikers put money and effort into changing legislation regarding the mandatory helmet law? Or should their resources go to encouraging the small towns they ride through to have better facilities for them to use? Different bikers were asked to come in and give their opinion about which was more important.
Now the helmet issue touched the heart of everyone they talked to, but the facility issue, which was very much on the minds of the all-female board did not seem to be a burning issue for the majority of the members that came to talk to them. Convinced that they needed more input, the board assigned several of its members to visit the bars where their members hung out and just discuss the issue with them. To get a feel for what they were thinking- facilities vs. helmets? They still weren't convinced which way to go so they got on the phones and did a phone poll. Finally, after connecting with the members in many different ways, they decided that their resources should go to elimination of the mandatory helmet law. Had they assumed that their board status meant that they automatically knew what the members wanted, (I mean aren't women intuitive anyway?) they would have ended up with great facilities. Thus the principle, a board should never assume they know what their ownership wants- ASK!
2. Big Issues and Small Issues
Every decision is important somewhere in the organization. But what issues are important at the board level? PG helps a board understand that it needs to start with large issues first and work in. Like a set of nesting bowls. The only way to have control of all of them is to hold the largest outside bowl with the rest inside. Same with a board. It has to think and decide and work on the large issues of the organization and then work in. An example might be your own Moab City Council--first it decides that the city council exists so that Moab will be a safe, healthy and successful community with a reasonable tax burden for its citizens. Once they have decided that, they might say well, what do we mean by healthy? Well healthy means clean water, clean air, and good garbage pick up. See how one fits inside the other? It's like doing an outline in junior high. Start big--work smaller.
3. Focus on results.
Because of the traditional board agenda, boards focus primarily on the activities of the staff and committees; that's what they hear at every meeting. PG identifies the difference between the results of an organization and the activities to get to those results. Carver takes it one step further and delineates what he terms Ends--what result, for whom, at what cost, and Means--the activities to get to those results. Boards become obsessed with Ends. They start to ask very dynamic questions "why do we exist?" "What difference should we make in this world?" At every meeting they discuss aspects of what that difference should be. And at every meeting they are garnering information from the ownership about those decisions. It is more like moving mountains an inch rather than molehills a mile. For example, imagine a school board that focuses on what results it really wants from education. Perhaps literate Utah citizens? Rather than focusing on who the superintendent wants to hire for the new English class.
Ok, that's a start. There is much more to Policy Governance, but it will have to wait for another issue. The boards I sit on that are using this idea love it. You really feel like you are making a difference. If we can help groups of people to work effectively together we can have a better world. Let the fun begin! If you have any questions please call.
Lynn Winter is best known for her restaurant Lynn's Paradise Café. Where she is sometimes seen in the Zephyr swimming in really large mint juleps. She also has a business that helps boards reach their full potential Called Boards That Rock. 502-459-2838. 2119 Alta Ave. Louisville KY 40206. Lwinter88@aol.com