7 Questions That Every Board and Staff Team Should Be Answering Together

In the November 2009 issue of Harvard Business Review, there's a terrific article by Susan Wolf Ditkoff and Susan J. Colby from the Bridgespan Group.

Although it's specifically focused on galvanizing funding organizations, the decisions faced by funders are the same as those faced by nonprofits and NGOs because we're all community benefit organizations.

Based on the article's list of questions for funders, we've created our own modified list of seven questions for community benefit organizations:

1. What program areas are our priorities, and how will we allocate resources?
2. How will we ensure that we have strong leaders, and what authority will they have?
3. Which principles and approaches must be consistent across our organization and which should allow staff discretion?
4. How will we set annual goals, and how will we respond and prepare for emerging opportunities?
5. How will we cultivate partners?
6. How will we communicate our brand?
7. How will we influence public policy?

We think these are powerful opportunities for dialogue with staff and board teams. How about asking and answering these questions with you Board/Staff team?