Board Governance

Framing is everything

The frame makes the picture It’s amazing what a good mat and frame can do for a piece of art. Choosing those things is an art in itself. The same applies to board policies. In this practical guidance for board governance series, I have thus far considered why and how the board must own its responsibility for good governance and suggested some practical ways by which the board may exercise its responsibilities. I suggested that boards must learn to frame their issues, craft their policies, and limit their solutions in terms of ends rather than means. In my last post, I offered two questions that are useful for filtering and framing matters that may arise: - Is this matter really a board issue? - How can we resolve this issue in terms of ends rather than means?
Governance Domains Matrix – Three Types of Governance

This chart–adapted by Ralph Enlow based on Chait, Ryan, and Taylor’s highly instructive conceptual framework–illustrates and summarizes three key aspects of governance: fiduciary, strategic, and generative.

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Governance In Colleges And Universities

Why do colleges have boards of trustees? Where did they come from? What is the difference between for-profit boards and non-profit boards? What is meant by “shared governance?” What should boards of trustees in colleges and universities be doing to improve their processes and procedures? What are the qualifications that people should possess to serve on college boards? These and other issues are discussed in the article on governance in institutions of higher education.

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Governance is Governance

Governance is governance. That’s more than a title—it’s a deeply held conviction. It’s a conviction first of all that governance is not management and, second, that governance in the not-for-profit sector is absolutely identical to governance in the for-profit sector—with that one added dimension that I will come back to. I want now to discuss what governance or trusteeship (I use the two terms completely interchangeably) is and what it is not. First, what it is not. Governance is not management. In my opinion, one of the worst sins of charitable organizations is that too often they do not distinguish between the two. Rather, they confuse the two responsibilities and in the process hamper the mission of the institution.

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Governing Board Effectiveness for Faith Based Organizations

One of the most significant influences on institutional and leadership effectiveness for faith-based nonprofit organizations is the role and function of the group charged with its legal oversight – the governing Board. When mission drift, operational dysfunctions, financial exigency or other crises occur, it is not unusual to find the root causes in the lack of clarity regarding policies, practices and procedures that guide the Board’s oversight of mission and personnel.

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How boards go from strength to strength

Let’s continue our consideration about how great institutions inevitably are anchored by great boards. I suggested previously that the path to improvement should begin with a frank assessment of how well your board is functioning. We can frame the central issues of high board functioning by means of three questions: - Do we have written policies addressing the board’s culture, conduct, and commitments? - Do we have a plan to optimize board composition and continuity? - Is there a board committee responsible to assess and improve the board’s individual and collective performance? Recent posts have focused on the first of those three questions. We now move to considering the second board ownership question: Do we have a plan to optimize board composition and continuity? Let’s take these issues in reverse order: continuity, and composition.
Is Experience the Best Teacher?

There are many derivations of the old saw, experience is the best teacher coming from philosophers and pundits ranging from Julius Caesar, to Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, Soren Kierkegaard, and Oscar Wilde, to name a few. More recently, MRI-based neurological studies have validated the learning theories of David Kolb and others that experience is integral to true learning.
It takes a committee

In my recent posts, I have been emphasizing that good governance requires that the board itself must own the responsibility and make provision for high functioning. Although the president can and should prompt and support the board in taking ownership, success in elevating governance effectiveness ultimately depends on the board itself. In previous posts, I have outlined proposals addressing the questions of board culture and commitment, continuity and composition. Next we turn to the mechanism necessary to ensure that these patterns and practices are consistently and effectively implemented: appointment and empowerment of a board development committee.
Leading with Intent – 2017 National Index of Nonprofit Board Practices – BoardSource

As the leading organization focused on strengthening and supporting nonprofit board leadership, BoardSource has been tracking and analyzing trends in nonprofit board leadership since we launched our first national study in 1994. Leading with Intent: 2017 National Index of Nonprofit Board Practices is the most recent in this series of studies.

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Let’s take a board-walk

My work with scores of Christian higher education institutions over the past four decades has led me to conclude that there is an inextricable, direct relationship between board functioning and institutional flourishing. Show me any measure of institutional distress and I will inevitably discover roots of that dysfunction in significant governance flaws. Conversely, I believe the too-often overlooked secret to a mission-true, healthy, sustainable college begins and ends with its governing board.

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