 |
“Boards are unique entities. They don’t just meet, they work.They have their own set of rules for productivity and comity.” |
Board Development:
Examples of Board Work
Strategic Positioning
Strategic Positioning Steps
Examples of Municipal Work
Carver Governance Principles
Carver Policy Governance Description
Examples of Board Work
Karen Ray Associates has been helping agencies and their Boards grow and strengthen since 1983. While working with Board members or agency staff, the focus is on leadership, collaboration, conflict management, problem-solving approaches and customer relations.
Examples of the results of this work in recent months include:
Work relationships between staff and Board members were strengthened:
During 2007 Karen Ray Associates conducted more than a dozen one day or multi-day workshops specifically on Board - staff issues including succession planning, team building, strategic thinking, and problem solving.
Long range plans developed for non-profit organizations:
Karen Ray Associates facilitated planning and problem solving sessions for these Boards which resulted in long range planning documents.
Collaboration enhanced among several organizations in downtown Pittsburgh:
These Board-managed agencies had been competing for funding, and now file joint funding applications.
Enhanced cooperation between providers of literacy services in school districts, industries and non-profit organizations
This multi-year project called for collaborative action among 67 Boards and their organizations.
Created a network of 28 counties to improve delivery of services to troubled families:
Karen Ray Associates facilitated retreats, meetings, and workshops to help County Commissions in rural Minnesota deal with family issues such as abuse and chemical dependency.
Strategic Positioning
About 10 years ago in New York City, I listened to the Vice President of Strategic Planning for British Petroleum give up his job. “It’s not possible to accurately plan for future decisions using our current technology,” he stated. “The best we can hope for in this turbulent era is to position BPOE to recognize and take advantage of future opportunities as nimbly as possible.”
The strategic positioning of an organization includes imagining present and foreseeable developments, and drawing a clear picture about how the organization might best respond to those developments. Rather than planning what to do in great detail, a strategic position describes how the organization is ready to surface and eliminate barriers, and how it can leap to respond to opportunities. Positioning moves from a static, lock-step “here’s what we do next” mentality to a more responsive “here’s what our world looks like today” attitude.
An organization can only grow a strong strategic position if its mission, vision, values and market place are clearly described. Staff know what the core business is, and look for ways to carry on that business in the current marketplace.
Various questions must be asked with strategic positioning:
- What does the future look like?
- What do we know (facts about the future) and what do we assume (our best guess about the future.)
- How should the organization be positioned in the future that will allow it to offer the best services and products?
- How can this be put into practice in a systematic way?
- What internal factors are decisive for survival and for failure or success, both in a positive and in a negative sense?
- What influences from outside can be of decisive importance to the realization of the organization's objectives?
It is possible to look at the horizon and accurately predict some elements of core operations:
- Internal growth: how will we build staff expertise? What new products are we working on?
- Market penetration: how will we introduce new services? New products?
- Market diversification: are there new groups we can serve?
- Funding: Where are the resources coming from? Who’s likely to fund efforts? What are our cash flow projections?
- Infrastructure: what new technologies do we need to plan for?
The steps of a positioning exercise include:
- Agreeing upon what is known, or very predictable, about the future environment in which the organization operates.
- Agreeing upon some key assumptions about the future.
- Determine the strengths and weaknesses of the organization to overcome barriers and act upon opportunities.
- Establish how the organization needs to be perceived to be successful.
- Draw inferences from this work.
- State inferences in terms of future positions the organization could occupy.
- Ask staff to develop work plans that get the organizations to those positions.
- Modify staff performance expectations to reflect attainment of these positions.
- Make these strategic positions the centerpiece of every Board meeting.
- Develop a foundation for key messages to be used consistently throughout a broader communications effort with staff and stakeholders.
Strategic Positioning Steps
Step 1: Organizing
Karen Ray will meet with Noya and her 4 directors to finalize the action plan. They will decide which stakeholders to involve, which funders to involve, and how best to work with internal staff. They will select themes, or topics for the plan to focus on (i.e.: customer service, programming, funding, advocacy, etc.) Noya and the directors will shape ad hoc work teams and give them directions.
Specific activities include finalizing the work plan; meeting with directors and others; selecting broad themes; setting standards and criteria for excellence (how will we know we did a good job?)
Step 2: Future Scanning and Fact Finding
Strategic positioning demands that we ask, “What will the facts be in 2010?” What will DIW consumers look like – age, location, health? What will the need for services be? Who will be paying for those services? What kinds of support will staff need to provide these services?
In essence, during Step 2 we will answer the question, “What will success look like in 2010?”
Ad hoc work teams will look for the answers to these questions in many ways, including demographic projections, social service and public health projections, and the strategic plans of partner agencies (“what does agency A think it will be doing in 2010?) Karen will help these work teams figure out how to scan the future, what facts to look for and where to find them, and how to keep track of it all. The work groups will be given a deadline for completion of their future scan, and Karen will be available to help and support the work teams. Karen will write a summary of the findings of the teams.
A thorough investigation of projected futures can be exhausting and expensive. I recommend we set reasonable limits to fact-finding efforts. There is added value to the work if we focus on fact finding that:
- Improves partnerships with external organizations
- Builds relationships with internal and external organizations, and with funders
- Strengthens staff expertise
- Creates confidence that the fact-finding is reliable and valid
For instance, rather than sending funders a survey to complete about their picture of 2010, Noya could interview select funders for in-depth answers to the question “What do you believe will be important in 2008? In 2009?” You get an opportunity to build relationships with individual funders while fact-finding.
Specific activities include orienting work groups; setting the scope and depth of future scanning; deciding what facts to look for and where to find them; Karen support of work groups or individuals; updates to Noya; documenting the future scan.
Step 3: Implications
When the work groups have confidence in their fact finding, then they summarize these facts (and / or assumptions) in a list and ask the next question:” What are the implications of these facts?”
For instance, if public health projects increased incidences of diabetes among older American Indians, what implication does that have for the services older consumers will need in 2010?
If the school district projects increased numbers of American Indian teenagers graduating from high school and applying to college, what implication does that have for DIW programming?
During this step these implications are gathered into a single document. Different groups are asked to prioritize, and Karen looks for common priorities. The Board could be asked to explore the facts and draw their own implications, and compare those to staff. During this step there are many dialogues about what facts DIW finds reliable and compelling.
Specific activities include: facilitated discussions about the implications, leading to some kind of synergy about which implications are most important to the future of DIW. These discussions might happen internally among staff, externally among key stakeholders, with the Board or with GMCC key executives.
Step 4: Select strategic positions
Karen and Noya draft a list of statements that nominate the 5-10 strategic positions that DIW should occupy in 2010. Noya meets with the Board and staff to finalize and adopt these statements.
Specific activities include: Board adoption of a set of position statements.
Step 4: Installation
One of the great advantages of strategic positioning is that it does not result in a three ring binder that sits on bookshelves. Rather, the position statements are installed as the centerpiece of work plans and Board agendas. For instance, during this step Karen helps DIW directors use these statements to revise work plans in their own units. As time and money allows, these statements can be installed at every level of work in the organization.
Specific activities include: teaching supervisors how to use strategic positions to modify work plans and job performance criteria; resolving specific issues regarding installation.
Examples of Municipal Work
Karen Ray Associates has conducted training or consulting with many local governments since 1983. These examples are from the last few years:
| 2006 TOPIC |
League of Cities; New Mayors Conference Collaboration in a Municipal Setting |
| 2006 TOPIC |
City of Arden Hills Strategic Planning |
| 2005 TOPIC |
City of Northfield Teambuilding, Leadership, Collaboration |
| 2004 TOPIC |
Newly Elected Leadership Conference Public Administration and Collaboration |
| 2003 TOPIC |
County of Anoka Teambuilding, Leadership, Collaboration |
| 2002 TOPIC |
City of Northfield Teambuilding |
| 2001 TOPIC |
New Mayors Conference Collaboration |
| 2001 TOPIC |
City of West St. Paul Council/Staff Goal Setting |
| 1995 - 1997 TOPIC |
City of New Brighton Strategic Planning for Public Safety |
| 1993 - 1995 TOPIC |
City of Worthington Developing Family Service Collaborations Building A Cultural Diversity Effort |
| 1993 - 1995 TOPIC |
Minnesota Municipal Clerks Institute Taught sessions on interpersonal effectiveness, working with Council members, and the role of staff. |
| 1993- 1994 TOPIC |
City of St. Anthony City of Cottage Grove Building Council and Council-Staff teamwork |
Carver Governance Principles
John Carver
1. The Trust in Trusteeship
The Council governs on behalf of people who are not seated at the table. Council members are trustees of a community for its citizens.
2. The Council Speaks with One Voice
Not all votes are unanimous, but when a decision is made every Council person accepts the decision. Officers and committees of the Council do not speak for the Council; committees prepare options for the Council to consider.
3. Council Decisions are Primarily Policy Decisions
Policy is the value or perspective that underlies choices. Polices describe the Council’s beliefs, commitments, values and vision. There are four categories of policies: ends, executive limitations, board staff linkage and governance processes.
4. The Council Formulates Broadest Policies First
The Council establishes control over large issues in the four categories, and then decides how much further detail it wishes to go into. Policy is separate from monitoring systems that audit staff performance. This avoids micro-management and rubber stamping staff decisions that have essentially set policy.
5. The Council Defines and Delegates rather than Reacts and Ratifies
No other entity in municipal government sets policy. Staff work plans ensure implementation of policies. Council members monitor staff work by pre-stated criteria, not by approving implementation actions. This makes the city staff flexible and nimble as they respond - within policy limits - to changing circumstances.
6. Ends Determination is the Pivotal Duty of Governance.
The Council focuses on who will benefit and at what cost. Leadership and policy making requires a sense of the whole, an overview, a high vantage point from which opposing ideas are compared. This means turning the Council’s attention away from personnel issues, programs or buildings and refocusing on why city government exists and the vision for the community. City staff have work plans, goals and objectives - means - to reach the ends the Council has in mind.
7. The Council’s Best Control Over Staff is to Limit, Not Prescribe
Prescriptions limit creativity and nimbleness. The Council sets “fences” that mark what is unacceptable or “out of bounds”. Within these limits staff act to implement policies, and Council does not get mired into details about the means to the ends.
8. The Council Must Explicitly Design Its Own Products and Processes
What ends is the Council pursuing? What products are the Council’s business? How will the Council make decisions? The staff have defined their jobs; now, what is the Council’s job and how will that job get done?
9. The Council Forges Links with Administration that are Empowering and Safe
Council members and the City Administrator are a team. The Administrator and his/her staff are a team. The Council sets policies that describe the difference in roles.
10. Performance of the City Administrator is Monitored Against Policy Criteria
When the Council has told its Administrator to achieve certain ends without violating certain executive limitations, monitoring performance becomes no less - and no more - than checking actual performance against these two sets of expectations.
Carver Policy Governance Description
Policy Governance, an empowering and fundamental redesign of the council role, emphasizes values, vision, empowerment of both Council and staff and the strategic ability to lead leader. A council crafts its values into policies of four types: ends, executive limitations, board-executive linkage, and governance process. Except for what belongs in bylaws, these categories of Council policy contain everything the Council has to say about values and perspectives that underlie all the organization’s decision activities, practices, budgets, and goals. Because values permeate and dominate all organizations life, redesigning policy in this way presents the most powerful lever for expressing Council leadership.
The Policy Types
Ends Policies: Carver believes it is important to distinguish between “ends” and “means”. “Ends” refer to the results any given effort produces. An ends policy describes the exact results the Council wants for it’s consumers / citizens. The “means” is the business of the staff; that is, the staff determine how to most effectively and efficiently get the results.
Executive Limitation Policies: These policies tell the City manager/administrator what he / she CANNOT do. Rather than tell the executives of an organization how to achieve the results the Council wants, the Council only outlines what to avoid. A common executive limitation policy is “Do not ignore committee or citizen input.” Another is “Do not spend more than $_______.”
Board-Executive Linkage Policies: The power and authority the Council exerts over the staff is described in this policy. It includes who the Council deals with (usually the executive), how Council members access staff and how staff access the Council, reporting procedures and so on. It is important to distinguish which Board-Executive Linkage Policies belong here and which belong in the by-laws.
Governance Process: Carver asserts that one of most important jobs of the Council is to manage itself successfully. The Council makes proactive, positive decisions early in its life about who it is as a leader. Carver bases much of his philosophy on the concepts of servant-leadership.