Doing Good Even Better by Edgar Stoesz

Author:Edgar Stoesz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Good Books
Published: 2014-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

By evaluating itself, a board is accepting accountability to deliver outcomes to its members. It is sending a signal to the whole organization that evaluation is important. Great boards evaluate four things.

1. Board membership

Use Jim Collins’ question in Good to Great, “Do we have the right persons on the bus?” Are the necessary skills represented? Are all membership categories well represented? Is there reasonable gender balance? Is there a mix of youth and experience? Are there gaps in geographic or denominational representation? Is everyone pulling his or her weight? Maybe most importantly, is there provision for succession, or are we all slated for retirement within a few years?

I served for some years as CEO of a church-related for-profit company. One day it struck me that many board members would be retiring within a few years of each other. I did not want the board to think that I had a hidden agenda to de-select any one of them. So I recommended that the board commit itself to bring one new director onto the board each year for five years, if not to succeed a retiring director, then to enlarge the board. They were a little taken aback. Then they agreed, reluctantly. Before five years had elapsed, we were grateful that our transition planning had not been delayed.

2. Board performance

Great boards ask themselves these questions periodically:

• Are we making significant decisions, or do we mostly approve reports?

• Do we spend enough time proactively addressing the future and preparing for it, or are we mostly living off past laurels and future hopes?

• Are we driven with a passion for excellence in all our doing, or has a mood of complacency set in?

• Do we have the information needed to perform our governance function effectively, or are we operating in the dark?

• Do staff and board committees present their material in ways that respect the ends/means distinction, or do we spend valuable board time sorting out these issues?

• Do we have a collection of basic policies to govern routine activities and to give guidance to staff, or do we keep reinventing the wheel?

• Are our policies filed in a board policy manual and readily available for consultation? Is our manual updated annually, or do we act arbitrarily?

3. Board-meeting effectiveness

Boards should periodically ask themselves these questions about their own effectiveness:

• Is our meeting time well distributed, permitting us to address important and strategic issues, or do we go around in circles until everyone is exhausted, and then adjourn?

• Is the board docket, including agenda and background papers with recommendations, available in advance of a meeting, permitting us to process it thoughtfully? Or do we spend valuable board time listening to reports and trying to understand what action is expected and appropriate?

• Can the soft voices be heard, or are they drowned out by the shrill, and sometimes less reflective, voices?

• Is there an atmosphere of openness and trust, permitting debate and even disagreement in search of the best solution? Or are debate and disagreement

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