Who ever said that all conflict is bad?
Denying conflict can do more harm than good. Board members working together to resolve challenges and acknowledging the tensions that arise can be effective in developing a high performing board.
In this video Tesse acknowledges these tensions and gives four tips on ways to maximise the positive impact of conflict.
There are four important steps you can take to achieve good governance:
(1) Develop a healthy positive relationship of mutual respect – which will lead to better communication, the ability to work through disagreements and a partnership where you and can support one another through difficult times.
(2) Be appreciative
(3) Be respectful
(4) Begin by making a list of the people you must interact with in order to perform your work well. Similar to Group Knowledge Flow Sessions, in meeting with individuals, share your Vision for what relevant actions need to be taken in your interaction with them, who you see as responsible for each action, and when it needs to be completed; ask them to tell you “what’s right, what’s wrong and what’s missing” from your thinking; and consider their ideas and opinions to learn from them and show you value them.
(5)Address incivility and eliminate corrosive behaviour that make people feel devalued and worthless
New and more detailed guidance included in the draft charity code has an enhanced focus on delivering organisational purpose and direction. Totally new is a separate principle that demonstrates a governance perspective on diversity. The consultation runs until Friday 3 February 2017. Those with an interest in charity governance are being asked to feed back their views on the code.Rosie Chapman, chair of the code steering group, said:
“Everything the code does is about putting in place the processes and behaviours that mean charities will be better able to deliver their purposes. This version of the code starts from the principle that trustees understand their role and are interested in helping their organisations develop further”.
The draft code and consultation questions are available at www.governancecode.org
Governance is not just about regulation, policies and procedures: it has a human face too. Board agendas are often cramped, meaning that more personal, sometimes difficult and uncomfortable matters do not get discussed. Sometimes there is a sense of uneasy compromise. But creating an environment where trustees can discuss matters of real personal concern can add significantly to the effectiveness of an organisation.
Last year, a successful service-delivering charity appointed a new chair. The first thing she did was to initiate a board assessment, which recognised that the board needed to clarify its goals in relation to new key performance indicators for the organisation. The next few months uncovered some uncomfortable undercurrents within the board, with some members feeling there was an inner circle that made all the decisions. The chair encouraged the trustees to voice their concerns, particularly about the challenges thrown up by the rapid growth of the charity since taking on more public service contracts.
A few trustees would not play, and left. But the majority gradually became more engaged. They were given specific responsibilities as part of the plan to meet the new strategic agenda, and time was allocated to developing fresh ideas. Trustees and senior management began having the difficult conversations that two years before would have been unthinkable, and this candour led to better decision-making and an end to the previous blame culture and power struggles.
The board now has the confidence to focus on what really matters, to say what it means, to encourage different points of view and to work as a team.
“This has really changed the way we do business and the way we treat each other,” says the chair. “More importantly, it has enhanced our effectiveness as a board to lead this organisation.”
Surely there is a lesson in this for every charity.
Culture is an enabler. A valuable asset is defined as a combination of values, attitudes and behaviours. Culture is about how ‘we’ are going to go about executing our strategy. Behavioural considerations are a prominent consistent part of everything an organisation does. Legislation, regulation and codes influence individual and corporate behaviour. They do not ultimately control it. One size does not fit all when it comes to culture. What matters is that the culture is appropriate for the context in which the organisation is operations. “It is important that the board sets the correct tone from the top.”
How does the board influence and shape culture? The UK Financial Reporting Council has recently published its report corporate culture and the role of the board. What stands out from this report? It is important to recognise the value and impact of culture.
While policies, procedures and systems have their place with values, behaviours and a healthy culture you can say the organisation is in a better place for success.
Corporate culture and the role of the board can be downloaded from the UK Financial Reporting Council website http://frc.org.uk
something quite new? Innovation Governance comes to mind. I am reminded of the words of Ellen DeGeneres.“When you take risks you learn that there will be times when you succeed and there will be times when you fail, and both are equally important“.
Even more challenging is having a top notch governing board in place which offers sufficient challenge to provoke top level thinking but high quality creativity to consider the vast range of possibilities to make things happen. The 7 questions below can help scope the innovation governance agenda.
In order to facilitate ease of answering I created a quick 5 minutes survey for you.
Innovation can be fun!
ng to Governing with Intent (An inquiry into trustee board effectiveness Onboard/BWB 2015).These statistics speak to the importance of the role of the Chair in maintaining board effectively and demonstrating leadership. The Chair has to be adequately equipped to perform this role.
I recently celebrated my birthday. It was a good day and thankfully the weather was lovely. The best part of all was being with my family and friends in an atmosphere of unity, care and nurture. It was an opportunity to reflect on the last year and be thankful for the good things that have happened. Even the experiences that had not been great, I recall with appreciation for having got through them.
It is helpful for our governing boards, our staff and volunteers to take stock and celebrate achievements. All too often, the ‘to do list’ gets longer, the areas of regret loom large – the things we wish we had done and didn’t or those elements where we have our achievements in our line of sight and wish we could have done better. Moments when we can be thankful, herald opportunities of gratitude, sometime serve as an oasis in the desert and can mark milestones to plan the next steps to even larger platforms. And it does no harm to carve out time and space for reflection and refreshment.
Small is BeautifulI was delighted to be a judge of the Charity Governance Awards 2016. I was even more pleased when I was told that I would be judging the small charities category for improving impact for charities that had no staff or a maximum of three staff.
This award is for organisations that can demonstrate how the board has contributed towards the increase of the charity’s impact in relation to its cause and mission. We were looking for examples of increasing impact, not just fundraising or increasing impact.
The winning charity was Robert Thompson Charities. The board led on a programme of modernisation that has improved the accessibility of the facilities for the charity’s community. The trustees were able to demonstrate the positive impact of these changes on the charity’s service users and also by awarding an external accreditation. The trustees’ commitment to consult and collect evidence from the community to inform the continued development of the charity was commendable.