212 > 4.5
How many hours did you spend involved in your organization last month?
How many do you think each board member spent?
It’s not wildly speculative to imagine that the ratio is probably something in the range of 212/4.5
That matters.
25+years into my career in the charitable sector and with more than a decade of accumulated service on Boards of Directors; and with thousands of hours consulting with charity leaders and boards, one of the recurring themes is a poor understanding of the role of the board.
That goes for both staff and directors.
The raw reality is that the vast discrepancy in attention, coupled with the inherent power differential rooted in governance authority, means this dynamic is vulnerable to all kinds of misunderstanding and tension.
I can think of a bunch of situations where staff teams became deeply distrustful of “the board” as a distant, possibly malevolent, entity that doesn’t understand what’s really going on and isn’t doing enough to support us.
And there are plenty of boards that have a paternalistic attitude towards staff or who show up to meetings unprepared and leave them unaccomplished, while staff are left with the stress of uncertainty.
There are some approaches to governance that can help overcome this challenge, and always some new ideas being proposed or attempted. I like the way Vu Le challenges accepted governance dogma for one example.
The question every organization needs to grapple with is: What should we expect from volunteers who generally give less than 1/40th the amount of time to the organization that the lead staff do?
Here are some things to consider:
-Clarity is essential. Many boards, and even more staff, simply don’t understand what board members are supposed to be doing. That perpetuates until expectations are essentially gone and the board becomes disengaged or subject to the direction of the one member who seems/claims to know something about governance.
-Agendas and Calendars are powerful tools. A standard agenda for board meetings, that can be updated and adapted as needed, coupled with an annual calendar of meetings and core deliverables, keeps some level of focus and makes sure you don’t miss the basics.
-Invest in board development. Every director and senior staff should read Jim Brown’s The Imperfect Board Member. Then you add some form of governance training, building knowledge of you organization’s cause and community, and subject matter expertise all have a place within an annual governance process. Directors should be improving.
-Ask better questions. When we don’t know what we’re supposed to do most of us get quiet. We don’t want to look stupid so we say nothing and hope someone else knows what’s going on. That’s a path to big problems. Build a list of questions to ask at every meeting, during budget discussions, while evaluating the lead staff person, and when considering new directors. You can’t be an effective board if you aren’t asking.
One of my favourite workshops to deliver is The Five Questions Healthy Boards Can Answer. It’s a practical approach to building a shared understanding of expectations specific to your organization in this season. The feedback, even from experienced board members, and especially from staff leaders, is excellent. Every benefits when board learn to use their limited hours more effectively.