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Nov. 2006 Newsletter
The
Future-Focused Leaning Board
I was reflecting the other
day on how much we as a Policy Governance® board (the
ministry board I have the privilege of chairing), had
learned over the past year. We had visited with a
segment of our moral ownership on a topic of vital
interest concerning whether to focus the ends policies
in a certain direction (or not). We had brought in a
highly respected expert and author to discuss another
aspect of our ends and his take on the future. It had
taken us two years to arrange his visit and bring him
from a distant country. We had discussed ends and their
implications with our management, a management that is
becoming increasingly sophisticated concerning
understanding both ends and the implementation issues
surrounding those ends, and, finally, we had spent a
good deal of time examining the ever richer information
provided in the ends monitoring reports. Combined, that
information compiled into a pretty well informed board
concerning the areas it was concerned about.
That led me to grasp a
reality as I had now truly experienced it. A Policy
Governance board is a learning board. It is constantly &
intentionally learning. Most of its learning has to do
with ends, its connection with owners, its invitation to
experts to inform it regarding ends-relevant information
& data, the input of staff regarding ends, & not least,
what it learns from the ends monitoring reports,
especially as they become more meaningful as the
measurements improve. Miss one of those board meetings &
you are deprived of a significant chunk of information,
never to be caught up as well as other board members.
Consequently, board members don’t need lectures (or
policies) to sustain their reliable attendance. They
wouldn’t miss a board meeting for anything.
It also has profound
implications regarding such structural questions as term
limitations and length of terms. Compel a board to have
short terms or limits and the effect is to limit the
board's intelligence and its decision-making. (Don't use
limits as an easy out for dealing with dysfunction.)
Many of our board members have been on the board several
years, 10 or more, and were still actively learning and
then bringing the synthesis of those years of learning
to every discussion. A group’s wisdom is the sum of all
that and the sharing that takes place. It is well known
in the decision-making literature that the best
decisions are made when everyone shares the same
(sufficiently rich) information. That means effective
sharing and dialogue - and being at meetings. Our board
knows that. They feel it in their gut.
But most important, they
are beginning to feel the movement toward the ends -
ends they helped create. It’s a big ship, but perceiving
that change in direction and focus is extremely
gratifying. The organization is being transformed and
focused to create the ends. That is an experience of
true and rewarding governance. |
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