1 Toward's Better Governance Editor's note: This is the first of a two ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

members is collected by staff and distributed to all business units and appropriate committees. Corcoranalso recognizes the importance of being transparent with her chief elected officer. "Emphasizing theimportance of transparency allows me to be human with my president. Transparency encourages greatertrust, quicker decisions, and sustained nimbleness. It all works together to create the successfulassociation in today's changing environment," she says.Through successful change initiatives, the association was able to transform its culture to include the followingcharacteristics:a clear definition of what constitutes success for the association;continuous monitoring of member needs, wants, and preferences;power dispersed rather than held by a few;volunteer leaders and staff, with distinct and well-defined roles, participating as equal partners indecision making;association information shared rather then hoarded; andassociation activities and finances transparent to members.No one path to successAssociations like NLN and AHRA and others examined for the book The Will to Govern Well have notfollowed steps in exactly the same order or executed change in the same ways. But they have relied on commonelements necessary for evolving governance to a level that is well matched to their unique needs and dynamics.These organizationsdefined the governance philosophy right for the organization--what it will pay attention to and how itwill pay attention to those things;designed work processes that enable intelligent decision making (part of the design of the work processinvolves making decisions about how the executive committee, committee infrastructure, professionalstaff, and outsourced contracting can support the board's philosophy or approach to governance);decided on the outcomes the association seeks to achieve; anddetermined what work is needed to accomplish those outcomes and then decided how to best organize toaccomplish the outcomes.Building the will to govern wellAssociations that view themselves and are viewed by others as having the will to govern well have investedsignificant time and effort in infusing increased knowledge in work and decision making and have strengthenedthe culture to support higher levels of trust. They have achieved greater nimbleness through the emphasis onknowledge and trust as well as through defining success and setting boundaries that enable staff and volunteerwork groups to proceed without having to ask permission.Developing and sustaining the will to govern well is not about reinventing governance. It is about evolving it.The major obstacle in failed or flawed attempts at evolving governance is not a lack of knowledge. It isinsufficient will on the part of leadership to make change happen.So how do you build the will to govern well? The critical factor between successful and failed governancechange initiatives is how the change is designed. Successful change efforts are designed and implemented sothat the execution of the change initiative itself builds the will to govern well. Important factors include12
The presence of a leadership champion or champions constantly demonstrating commitment to anew way of doing the association's business. These leaders consistently communicated thesignificance and meaning of new systems and processes and exhibited a believable sense of energy andexcitement about doing things differently.An experiential approach toward a new way of governing. Leadership was not merely exposed tolecture or theory. Users of the new systems and processes were given active opportunities to experiencethem and participate in the customization for their association.Real issues of importance used in the prototypes of new kinds of governance dialogue. In manycases, this practice allowed the organizations' leaders to experience the contrast of employing new waysof dealing with issues that they had been attempting to resolve under old systems. It also gave them asatisfying sense of not just being trained but of executing real work in the process.Outside expertise and energy brought in at critical points in the process. In many associations, thefirst experience people had with new governance was successful because it was guided by consultantsand facilitators familiar with the process. This gave leaders an effective model for how the organization'sleadership could address issues of significance in new and productive ways.Many associations have begun to evolve their governance process, culture, and leadership behavior. Doing sowill strengthen the key competitive advantages of associations in the 21st century: the aggregate intellectualcapital of their membership, their energy as a community with common purpose, and their credibility asvoluntary institutions.Glenn Tecker is president and chief executive officer of Tecker Consultants, LLC, Trenton, New Jersey. JeanFrankel and Paul D. Meyer, CAE, are principal partners of the firm. They are coauthors of The Will ToGovern Well: Knowledge, Trust, and Nimbleness, sponsored by the ASAE Foundation and published by ASAE.E-mail: gtecker@tecker.com, jfrankel@tecker.com, pmeyer@tecker.com.13
Page 1 and 2: Toward’s Better GovernanceEditor'
Page 3 and 4: The will to govern wellOur study ex
Page 5: accountability with staff, and clea
Page 8 and 9: to ASAE's CEO Symposium in January
Page 10 and 11: collected dust," says Corcoran.NLN

1 Toward's Better Governance Editor's note: This is the first of a two ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?