|
|
 |
Governance Training/Services |
Ask any board member to identify the primary function of the board. Chances are that eight of the first 10 answers you receive will be "policy." Now, ask those same board members to list the decisions they made at their last board meeting. How many of those decisions were policy-level decisions? Our experience: virtually none.
The truth is, boards don't operate at the broad and powerful policy level. Most boards make decisions at the operational level - the place where the CEO should exercise delegated authority, responsibility and accountability for day-to-day operations.
This preoccupation with operational issues by boards is what leads to confused roles, charges of micro-managing, wasted time, splintered vision and frustration.
The problem is not that boards resist functioning at the policy level. It is more due to the fact that boards simply haven't taken the time to assess their own performance and consciously discover how board decisions can be made at the broad policy level. It is much easier for boards to dabble
in the day-to-day affairs of
the
organization, because these are the tangibles that readily can be
addressed or "fixed." Creating an organizational vision and identifying
long-term benefits for the people being served take more work
- and thoughtful leadership. It is the most important work
a board can do. Unfortunately, most boards have
given away the best part of their jobs!
| |  |
Governing models can be great theory. But do they work in Real Life?
All boards have an established way of doing whatever it is they do. In most cases, operating methods and procedures used by boards have evolved over the years, without any real thought to why the board does what it does the way it does it. There is no defined "operating system."
Governing models provide the framework for boards to get their work done in some logical, coherent way. But some models are so rigid and inflexible that the board becomes a slave to the model rather than using it for what it is: a tool for good governance.
The Aspen Group has devoted its business to the task helping real boards make sound governing models work in real life.
The theoretical now is practical. | |
|
|
There is a better way. Boards can control operational decisions without helping the CEO make them. This delegation of authority, with accompanying monitoring for compliance, allows the board to focus its time and energies on the more important issue of whether the organization is making a difference for the owners or clients it serves.
We offer our governing model, Coherent Governance®, which is the single best tool we have found to help boards truly govern effectively, and allow CEOs to do the jobs for which they were hired. Coherent Governance allows boards simultaneously to become more active and less intrusive.
The Aspen Group International, LLC.
A Leadership Development Company
P.O. Box 1777 Castle Rock, CO 80104
303.882.9888 or 303.478.0125 Fax: 208.247.6084
email: aspen@aspengroup.org
Linda J. Dawson, Senior Partner | Dr. Randy Quinn, Senior Partner |
|
