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Board Governance Styles - Part 2

By Dan Mirgon, CFRE 

In Part 1 of Board Governance Styles we looked at the five Styles of board governance models.  This month, we will be asking:  “Which Model is the Right One? “

There are a number of reasons for considering a change in your governance model:

•board members are dissatisfied with their roles or the way the board operates;

•your organization is experiencing problems that can be traced back to inadequacies in board structure or process;

•your organization is entering a new phase in its life-cycle;

•the CEO has left or is leaving;

•there has been a major turnover of board members;

•there is a crisis of confidence in the board or the CEO.

The descriptions of the various governance models, will give you an idea of the strengths and weaknesses of each model, but the difficulty in making the transition cannot be overstated.

Changing models is like changing lifestyles. You must abandon well-established ideas and patterns of behavior, replacing them with new ideas, roles, and activities that will seem confusing and unfamiliar.

This type of change takes a considerable amount of time, energy, and other resources to accomplish.

The answers to the following questions will help you to determine how badly you need to change your governance model and whether your board and organization have the necessary commitment and resources to accomplish it successfully. Take your time with each question, ensuring that each board member answers each question.

•Do we have a clear understanding and agreement on the purpose of our organization? Is it written down?

•What are the basic values which guide our organization and our board? Are they written down?

•How do we know whether the good our organization does is worth what it costs to operate it?

•What financial resources do we have and can we reasonably count on for the next few years?

•To what extent are board members expected to contribute money and labor to fundraising efforts?

•Do we believe that the organization should be run as a cooperative or collective - with staff participating along with board members in the governing of the organization?

•How much time is each board member willing to give to the organization in the next year (or until the end of their term)

•How much trust does the board have in the ability of the CEO to ensure that the organization operates in an effective and ethical manner?

•What are our expectations about attendance at board and committee meetings?

•What is we hold board members accountable?

•What the attendance record of each board member?

•How do is the record of each board member and committee with respect to meetings and results?

•How useful has each committee proven to be?

•To what extent do committees duplicate staff jobs? How satisfied are our members with the current board performance?

•Who thinks we should change our governance model?

•How much time and money are we willing to devote to increasing our own knowledge and skills to improve our performance as board members?

•How does our board deal with differences of opinion?

•How do members deal with decisions when we disagree?

•To what extent is it necessary for us (board members) to be involved in the delivery of programs and services, marketing, public speaking, etc.

•Who attends our Annual General Meeting? Why do they come?

•As board members, to whom do we wish to be accountable?

•How effective is our current recruitment method in getting excellent board members?

Take some time to consider these questions.

The answers will tell you the degree of difficulty you will have in changing to a new governance model and where the problems lie.