Boards Need to Design Their Information

You know the feeling, how some statements or phrases stick with you forever? I heard some words many years back, outside of this context. Now I can see, and maybe you will too, how they relate.

Have you ever thought how simple life could be to have one basic form of information to give to anyone? But, “No.” If you want to join a club, you fill out their form. If you want to borrow money, you fill out that lender’s form. Their forms are user based. And that’s ultimately right because each has their own information needs. In a computer foundation class in college, I learned that, “An information system has to be user based.” It was a reminder to programmers that they should not control the form of output, but the user of the information should.

However, 999 out of 1000 of today’s boards of directors receive information that someone else decided they should have. What would it be like to turn that around?

My challenge today is to have your board take some time to think about what it needs to know and request that in a form it not only understands, but can easily and quickly digest.

I just completed a seminar in which we talked about how overweight board packets get over time. That's why I offer a service to help out(find out more). One board has taken the time to workshop the information. The director described going through the packet one page at a time. Any page that didn’t get at least one director’s vote was removed from future packets. That’s a great start. They plan on another such exercise.

The next step for them could be the top-down approach. Ask the directors what they have to have in two categories. First, based on the type of organization, what are the ubiquitous and primary few measures of organizational health and vitality? Directors need to receive those simply and regularly. Second, based on the organization’s plans, what does the Board need to track performance against the plan?

Like the dashboard on your vehicle, you get just what you need to be safe and know when to get it repaired.

Need a Governance Committee?

Why have one? The last ten years or so, there’s been a great governance movement among non-profits. Carver’s 1990 book, Boards That Make a Difference, was the spur. In the land of credit unions, my books, Reinventing Credit Unions, 1990 and Who’s Driving Credit Unions?, 1997, both offered similar stimuli moving credit union boards to a more pure governance position.

Many in the business of being a volunteer director did not realize that they have been practicing some level of governance for a while. Now they have projects to examine policies and board/executive power relationships, in order to rewrite the relationship. Some organizations establish a Governance Committee. It is quite common, when a Board establishes a committee, to make it a standing committee. What about making it ad hoc?

When governance is no longer a project, the GC may evaporate. Governance is what every board begins to do when it stops doing everything by itself, and starts getting things done through others. The next stage in the life of a Board is pure governance -- no operational duties, only setting ends and limitations. Once the Board achieves that level of governance, it's no longer a project but a way of accomplishing success for the organization and its beneficiaries. Then, let the committee go.