Start Asking How Your Board Can Be an Asset

"Houston, we have a problem"
 

While this may never have actually been said on the Apollo 13 mission, it holds a great deal of meaning in our society. It is our shorthand for expressing that things are not going as we had planned, and, in fact, our situation is dire and potentially life threatening.


So, here is a statistic from BoardSource's 'Leading with Intent' research - 2021*

Only 31% of nonprofit CEOs report that their boards have a very
positive impact on their organization's overall performance

(Pause and re-read that)

While that sinks in, let me introduce another concept: asset. Usually, we think of an asset as something of financial value. However, in our world of community benefit, we rightfully consider assets as 'anything valuable or useful' (thank you Collins English Dictionary). Specifically, assets are things that positively contribute to our ability to advance community benefit (aka achieve our mission outcomes).

This lens helps clarify that the assets are not the funds, but rather the actual things we rely on to be effective in our work (people, relationships, materials, facilities, etc). While many of these we can budget for, quite a few are non-financial, but still essential to how we work.

As fiduciaries (which is anyone who makes decisions about how an organization uses its assets), it is our ultimate responsibility to ensure that an organization is effectively and efficiently using its assets to advance our mission outcomes and community benefit. To do this, we must be clear about (1)what the benefit is that we need from an asset; (2) whether we are getting that level of benefit from the asset; and, (3) whether what we invest in securing and supporting that asset is worthwhile given the benefit it achieves.

What happens when we apply this lens to a board of directors...when we sit for a moment and ask, 'what is the unique added benefit this organization gets from a board?'

Now, let's go back to that statistic.

69% of CEOs indicate that their boards DO NOT have a very
positive impact on the organization's performance. 

Of that 69%, CEO's claim 48% of boards have 'somewhat of a positive impact' with the remaining 21% either neutral or negative. Now last I checked 'somewhat' was not the adjective most of us strive for when thinking of positive impact.

So the translation - 69% of organizations have boards that are only somewhat of an asset, or, are an outright liability. 

69% are blah or worse. 

This may seem hyperbolic, but we invest time, money, food, and emotion into supporting boards. If they are not returning positive benefit worthy of those investments, they are not an asset. At best, they are simply frustrating; at worst, they drain other valuable assets away from the organization's primary responsibility to the community.

Now that I went hyperbolic, let me refocus. I don't actually see this as an issue of bad performance, but rather a misguided set of expectations. The BoardSource report shows that boards are actually rated fairly well on Key Board Performance Areas. So, they are good at what we say they should do (roles and responsibilities), but actually bad at having a positive impact on the organization's performance...hmmm

Going back to the 31% data point, my first instinct is to ask, does everyone understand and agree to what the "positive impact" is that the board should be having to advance organizational performance. Do board members truly have a sense of how they can be an asset to the organization they serve? This shifts us from the transaction of doing to the outcome of achieving.

So, Houston...it seems our problem may be that what we prescribe board members do may not actually be adding the benefit the organization needs.

We can change this script pretty easily if we are willing to stop prescribing and start inquiring. Here are the questions Orgforward starts with when working with boards:

• Who is most affected by the decisions and actions of the board?
  
  
• What is the unique added benefit this organization needs from the board of directors to advance the organization's ability to achieve its outcomes now and into the near future?
  
  
• What does it take for board members to be able to contribute to that benefit, both collectively and individually?
  
  
• What does that tell us about what the board composition, structure, and practices would need to be?

These questions, which draw on Creating the Future's Catalytic Thinking model, allow people to engage in a deeper understanding of the organizations they have chosen to serve. The questions will likely cause people to scratch their heads. People may feel puzzled or fall back on the list of roles and responsibilities lists that pervade the board development world. This thinking pushes us beyond oversight and approval functions. And the questions will lead to inquiry focused back to the CEO about what benefit is needed from the board.

This is all good! 

 

In the long run, asking about how the board can be an asset opens the door to re-envision our constructs of what boards 'should' do and be. We need to be honest that boards are not representative of our communities and that only 31% are truly serving as meaningful assets. The constructs we use and narratives we have about what a board is or should be are simply not serving our organizations and more importantly our communities.

Changing the questions and asking how we envision our boards being meaningful and worthwhile assets to organizations that contribute to the organization's performance in advancing community benefit - now Houston, we have a way to thrive!

 

*blog updated in 2022 with new BoardSource data