What exactly is the role of a Governing board in today's world? Recently I read a set of guiding principles on policy governance and the effective principals that can and should be adopted by a board to assure a companies success. Principles outlined by John Carver include:
- Trust in Trusteeship
- A board should speak with one voice, or not at all
- Board decisions should predominantly be policy decisions
- Boards should formulate policy by determining the broadest values before progressing to more narrow ones
- Boards should define and delegate, rather than react and ratify
- Ends determination is the pivotal duty of governance
- The boards best control over staff means is to limit, not prescribe
- A board must explicit design its own products and processes
- A board must forge a linkage with management that is both empowering and safe
- Performance of the CEO must be monitored rigorously, but only against policy criteria
Each one of these principals can be explored in depth. John Carver provides invaluable insights into each one of these areas that all board members and those involved in business development can benefit from. A few of these points stuck out to me and deserve additional thought.
- Board Decisions should predominantly be policy decisions.
What every CEO and management team needs, whether seasoned or just starting out, is an all star mentoring team that can provide invaluable insights, information, direction and access to resources. A board is a body of knowledge and wisdom that is greater than the sum of its individual members. A board that speaks with one voice can guide a business along a sure path to success. A boards principal role is to create a frame work in which a business operates. The board does not operate the business. Policy, according to John Carver should center around four categories to fulfill this mandate. 1. Ends need to be defined. 2. Executive limitations need to be defined. 3. Board-staff linkages need to be defined, and 4. the Governance process needs to be defined.
A summary of John Carver's Principals on Policy Governance can be viewed at:
http://archive.uua.org/ga/ga00/217.html#basic
