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"Policy Governance provided the structure needed to align the district's mission and operations to support student achievement. The accountability imposes on the Board and Superintendent a focus on student achievement and helps guide decision-making to direct resources where they will benefit students most. Linda and Randy provided invaluable assistance when our school district adopted the model and continue to do so. Policy Governance has provided a sound management model that allows new board members or administrators to quickly learn their roles. In consequence, we are able to maintain our momentum on important projects through what can be challenging board and administrator trasitions." |
Dr. Mary Barter, CEO
Durango 9-R District, CO |
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About Boards...
Peter Drucker said it:
They don't work.
Yet there are millions of them, all trying to contribute to the betterment of something: public schools, universities, credit unions, banks, youth clubs, associations, civic clubs, charities, foundations, country clubs and music guilds. You name it; there is a board governing it - or trying to!
Despite the inherent worth of boards, for every one board that works well, there are scores of others that don't. Board members themselves far too frequently leave their positions on boards believing their valuable time has been wasted dealing not with substantive issues, but with administrative matters that should have been handled by staff.
These frustrations are due to board members' having been thrust into a governing system so inherently flawed that its failure was predictable. For as long as there have been boards, we have seen these recurring, performance-limiting frustrations:
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lack of clarity of purpose and focus:
what is the organization expected to accomplish, for whom? And what is the board's role in making that happen?
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confusion of roles: is this task the board's responsibility, or is it staff's?
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internal preoccupation, rather than external focus: boards that feed off themselves - or off of their staff - accomplish little for their owners or clients.
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misguided perception of what is
important:
is the board's job to be the watchdog, or the vision-setter?
Boards usually fail because their "governing system" -or lack of it - has predetermined failure built-in.
In our experience, boards are confronted with two different types of issues that limit their performance. One is the inherent flaw in the governing system boards use to get their jobs done. In most cases, boards have no coherent way to do their work. They simply do what they have always done, or they do the work someone else says they should do, based upon agendas that someone other than the board prepares and hands them.
The other obstacle to quality board performance is more difficult to resolve: the interpersonal issues of board members themselves. In the final analysis, no board can be any better than the people who comprise it. If individuals cannot work effectively with each other, no governing model will overcome that challenge. We have the tools to help individuals overcome these performance-limiting obstacles, which we know will work if individuals are willing to subordinate their own personal agendas and contribute to the good of the whole.
The Aspen Group International provides boards and executive staff the training, structure, facilitation and coaching to function as effective individuals and to perform as high performance leadership and governance teams, responsibly and accountably focused on achieving significant end results.
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