One of chief reasons
for boards to revert back to traditional governance is the lack of new
member orientation. New members don't have the opportunity that the
original board members did to learn about Policy Governance as the first
set of board policies were developed. If boards aren't careful, a
gradual loss of expertise and knowledge occurs until the board no longer
fully understands the conceptual foundation of Policy Governance, allowing
them to revert to old practices.
An orientation for new members will do much
to help keep Policy Governance alive. What is maybe less evident is
that there needs to be both a knowledge and a skill component. The
knowledge element is pretty straight forward, sharing and explaining the
basic elements of Policy Governance. This can be done in multiple
ways, such as giving them a copy of "Boards that Make a Difference" or the
CarverGuides. A more personalized approach can be carried out by
almost any board member that has a good understanding of the concepts, and a
presentation format might be helpful to assure that all the concepts are
covered. For those that are familiar with PowerPoint, this sight has a
downloadable file
that can be used as a place from which to start. What are the basics
that new board members should understand? A good list can be found on
the Policy Governance
Simplified page.
However, the other component is a set of
Policy Governance skills. Sometimes the issue is that even the board
is still functioning at a neophyte level in terms of skill. This makes
it doubly hard for new board members as they don't have board examples from
which to model their behavior. Which skills should new board members
look to acquire?
-
- The ability to
create one group voice as represented by written policy
- The habit of
reviewing new issues or concerns in light of what has already been said
in the Policies.
- The ability to
translate the Owner's
wishes into Ends policies
- The ability to
drafting Limitation polices without being more restrictive than
necessary
- The ability to
monitor and use the rule of any reasonable interpretation
Another approach that
has been effective is to ask new board members to be
process observers, once they have the basic concepts under their belt.
It gives them as well as the board an opportunity to see things from a
fresh perspective.
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