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Raising the strategic focus of your board
11/12/2018 Governing for the Future Raising the strategic focus of your board Welcome introductions [everybody self-introduces] Polina Makievsky, Alliance for Strong Families in Communities June 5, 2015
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Nonprofit Leadership Evolution
11/12/2018 Nonprofit Leadership Evolution Risks / New Opportunities Uncertainty New kind of Leadership Required
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Leadership: Then vs. Now
11/12/2018 Leadership: Then vs. Now Then Now
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Amazon.com books on “Leadership”
11/12/2018 Amazon.com books on “Leadership” 141,608 books on “Leadership” 3,466 books on “nonprofit Leadership” 33,783 on Governance 1,446 on Governance
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Seeing around the corner
If the expectation of leaders is to be able to see around 2 corners, where do they go for support?
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Strategic Capacity: The Alliance Journey
11/12/2018 Strategic Capacity: The Alliance Journey 2011: Strategy Counts, funded by Kresge Foundation 2012: Board-Chair/CEO Institute: How do we elevate strategy in the board room? 2014: Commitments of High-Impact Organizations
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Lesson from Strategy Counts
11/12/2018 Lesson from Strategy Counts Chief Strategy Officers: “Guardians of the Horizon” Who is your guardian of the horizon?
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Commitments of High-Impact Organizations
11/12/2018 Commitments of High-Impact Organizations High-impact boards… Don’t focus on only solving the problems of today and yesterday Instead focus on positioning the organization for the future
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CEOs only: Quick Poll
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Board Members Only: Quick Poll
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11/12/2018 Learning Objectives Understand the three key leadership roles of nonprofit boards Understand the characteristics of boards focused on operations vs. strategy Explore the barriers and strategies to board operations that are strategically focused In our conference call today; we’ll be going through various sections or “values” that you see here. We’ll start out with the first two bullet points – a review of our mission and also highlight various “commitments” necessary for impact. These are the “big-picture” sections. Then we’ll get more into the details of what you can access as a benefit of membership – those services fall under network, knowledge, solutions and opportunities for transformation. So let’s get started.
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Governance as Leadership
11/12/2018 Governance as Leadership The 3 Domains of Governance Governance as Leadership (2005), Chait, Ryan, and Taylor Fiduciary Routine business Oversight of finances, auditing, investment management, development and program review Focused on problem solving Strategic Future oriented & visionary Focused on defining plan for the future Competitive analysis Review of performance Generative Focused on identifying problems and opportunities Learning and sense-making Where goal-setting and direction-setting originates
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Fiduciary governance is OK; but you don’t want a fiduciary board
11/12/2018 Fiduciary governance is OK; but you don’t want a fiduciary board Allow board opportunity to express leadership Fiduciary Oversight Questions Fiduciary Inquiry Questions Can we afford it? Did we get a clean audit? Is the budget balanced? Does a merger make financial sense? It is legal? How much money do we need to raise? Is staff turnover reasonable? What’s the opportunity cost? What can we learn from the audit? Does the budget reflect our priorities? Does a merger make mission sense? It is ethical? Are we treating all staff ethically and reasonably? Source: Governance as Leadership (2005:38)
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Organizational Capacities
11/12/2018 Strategy Strategic Capacity Strategic Planning What is our purpose? What is our contribution? Mission External Environment Organizational Capacities Strategy What are the needs of our community? What are other organizations doing to meet those needs? What are our funders interested in supporting? What is our organization best in class in doing? What are our core competencies?
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Generative Thinking Catalytic Thinking Conversation Starters:
11/12/2018 Generative Thinking Promote: Robust dialogue Creative thinking Exploration Multiple perspectives to emerge [no right answer] Prevent: Groupthink Inactivity Passive participation Catalytic Thinking Conversation Starters: What will be most strikingly different about this organization in the next five years? On what list, which you could create, would you like this organization to rank at the top? What is the biggest gap between what the organization claims it is and what it actually is? What should be atop the board’s agenda next year? What are we overlooking at the organization’s peril?
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Budget as viewed through 3 domains
11/12/2018 Budget as viewed through 3 domains Do we have a balanced budget? Why did we overspend on that program? Fiduciary Do we have the resources to be competitive in the future? Strategic What would we do if our major source of revenue declined significantly over rthe next 5 years? Generative
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Merger as viewed through 3 domains
11/12/2018 Merger as viewed through 3 domains How much will this merger cost to execute? Fiduciary What could we accomplish in the community as a result of this merger? Strategic Are we prepared to expand our focus by merging with this organization? Generative
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Now you… Pick an issue that was recently on your board agenda or will be on an upcoming agenda Was it discussed in the fiduciary, strategic or generative frame? Frame questions on the topic from the other 2 frames Share with a partner
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How to have a “Triple-Threat” board
Agenda setting Aligned to strategic priorities of the organization Use of consent agenda Promote inquiry, not just oversight
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Techniques for Robust, Generative Discussions
11/12/2018 Techniques for Robust, Generative Discussions Silent starts Before discussion: Each member writes most important question to be considered on index card; identify questions most important to board by tallying similar questions One minute memos After discussions: Have board members write down something they would have said if there was time to continue discussion. Future perfect history In breakout groups: Group defines in future perfect tense how the organization moved from its current state to its envisioned state. Counterpoints Select 2-3 board members: Have them argue point and counterpoint to initial recommendation. Role plays Assign board members to groups: Each group represents an important constituency of the organization. How would they respond to a decision the organization is considering? Source: Governance as Leadership (2005: 129)
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Tropman’s Agenda Bell Pacing meetings for peak performance Energy Time
Minutes Announce- ment(s) Modest Decision Item(s) Moderate Decision Item(s) Most Difficult Item(s) Brainstorm Item(s) Small Trivial Item(s) Time Pacing meetings for peak performance 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Energy
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Next Step Take a look at 2-3 recent agendas
How much time was spent in fiduciary, strategic, generative mode? How much time was spent on operations vs. strategy [future]? What would be the ideal ratio?
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Special Offer 2 Alliance-rate registrations to Board Chair-CEO Institute [$500 savings] November 14-15, 2015 Chicago, Il. Contact Polina at if interested.
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Section Title Thank you! Polina Makievsky pmakievsky@alliance1.org
11/12/2018 Section Title Thank you! Polina Makievsky @pmakievsky (414) The first value proposition; “ we, like you are a mission-driven, human-serving nonprofit.” You and the entire member network are the full owners of the Alliance. The Alliance and the nearly 500 member network, speaking the same language, can creatively collaborate, which creates synergies that no single organization or smaller network could achieve. You’ll see in the upcoming slides how this is possible and how we, together, can unleash our collective power and have greater impact for transformational change in our sector and neighborhoods & communities across the nation.
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