Shared Governance Pointers

We recently stumbled across a summary of a presentation given by Bill Ryan, Research Fellow at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University, at a seminar sponsored by The Pew Fund for Health and Human Services.

In the session, Ryan talked about the importance of true shared governance as the best operating model for organizations. Below is an abridged excerpt from the summary:

There are costs and barriers for organizations that do not have "shared governance." Costs include: the board functioning only on committees; board disengagement; a lack of strategic thinking; less funding (at least from the board); a polarized board and staff; and costs to the organization of remaining in the status quo. Barriers include: not enough time at board meetings, the complexity of organizational purpose, the pace of change, lack of term limits for board members, fear of loss of control by the organization’s CEO and a lack of creativity and bravery. Ryan outlined several strategies for overcoming the barriers, including:

• Have a consent agenda to free up time for other discussions.
• Use silent starts. Give everyone a minute to think about important matters and write something down before discussion.
• Use one-minute essays. Ask people to write down what they would like to say about the issue if there were more time.
• Include time for mini executive sessions where the board works for ten or fifteen minutes without an agenda. These brief "board reflection" sessions interrupt the usual pattern of following an agenda and/or having the CEO always take the lead.
• Promote robust discussions, including those with multiple interpretations by board members about what a situation is or what requires attention.
• Have as few standing committees as possible. Instead, have task-driven committees that address specific issues, gather information about those issues, and then report to the whole board about what they have learned for full board discussion.

Read the full eight-page summary here.