Articles

Thoughts and perspectives on how organizations can achieve strong policy governance.

Governance Solutions

WHAT’S ALL THE FUSS ABOUT GOVERNANCE? We Need “New” Solutions People seem to believe that the status quo still isn’t working because they...

On board service

Dear Association Executive: Recently on the American Society of Association Executive’s (ASAE) Executive Section listserv, there have...

What do nonprofit governing boards do?

Defining governance is not easy. If you google “definition on governance,” you will find over 500,000 entries. Governance is a generic...

A Failure of Leadership

Last week, President Obama spoke of a “failure of leadership” at GM. What happens to GM affects their employees, vendors, retirees,...

Democracy is messy

Last night, President Obama said that democracy is messy. Democracy is messy. Governing boards represent democracy in action and the...

Governance is a new word to many

An acquaintance asked me yesterday what I do. “I work with board and executive leaders on a system of governance that helps them get rid...

Update to: Cooperation, collaboration, or coopetition…whatever works.

An update to what was written here. This group is still together but we’ve moved beyond Policy Governance to conceptualizing what it...

Lessons on Policy Governance® from The Little Red Hen

The Little Red Hen was an industrious little hen. From a few seeds, she had a vision of a beautifully golden, richly fragrant loaf of...

Would you buy 30-year-old technology?

The ad reads: “Car ‘phones. They’re no longer the privilege of the chosen few.” In 1982, I actually had one of these Vodaphone babies. I...

Doodles of a Distracted Blogger

Decided that diary is the wrong word. Even though I’m chronicling my foibles and attempts at online networking, the day of the post...

Classic NPO mistakes in hiring a CEO

I recently got this question from one of my professors in I-O Psychology: “Have you noticed that non-profit organizations tend to write...

Corporate accountability – blah, blah, blah

This morning, The Xylem Group had a very interesting teleconference. We discussed the debates and dialogs going on over corporate...

Boards that add value are accountable for a healthy organizational future

When a board spends most of its time reviewing what happened in the past (e.g., monthly reports or budget reports), it is merely...

Policy Governance and Tone at the Top – When Nonprofits Fail

Nonprofits are failing at a high rate (e.g., Flanagan, 2012; Nonprofit Trends, 2014). Despite strategic planning and fund development,...

Accountability and nonprofit boards

Expectations of nonprofit boards – and of those who serve on them – are established by tradition and maintained by the status quo...

What is a worthy organization?

Strickland and Vaughn assert that integrity in an organization is built on foundational values, such as accountability. In a series of...

In theory...we should understand a lot about boards

But we don’t. Over 15 years ago Brown (2005, p. 317) concluded, "...much work remains to be done to establish the nature and...direction"...

What’s the Right Size for a Board?

A few governance consultant colleagues and I are experimenting with Blab. Blab is a terrific forum for group video broadcasting and live...