Getting to Strategic and Generative Governance: Beginning the Journey with Your Board
We live in a time of profound
change. Faced with shrinking budgets, rapidly evolving community needs, a
hostile political climate, and ever more intense public scrutiny, nonprofits
are finding that it’s not enough to simply update a mission statement or patch
over a list of outdated goals. In order to meet the challenges of building
long-term financial sustainability, weighing strategic restructuring options, planning
for leadership succession, and more, boards need to think and act differently.
Some boards are already making the
transition by applying the lessons of the book, Governance as Leadership.
This leadership model challenges boards to engage in three modes of thinking
and decision-making: fiduciary, strategic and generative. While all three are
important, the third, generative thinking, is receiving the most attention.
Thinking further into the future about new possibilities through generative
mode thinking, can lay the groundwork for board leaders to develop breakthrough
strategies that will assure increased mission impact and sustainable growth in
the future.
It has been my experience that once
nonprofit leaders begin to grasp the importance - and necessity - of strategic
and generative governance, they want to know more about it AND they want to
know HOW to do it. They ask: what tools and activities will help us begin to
govern strategically and generatively?
Interested
in Enhancing The Capacity of Your Board for Strategic and Generative
Governance?
We offer a number of training and
consulting programs to help you do this. These offerings will provide a
practical introduction to strategic and generative thinking and offer concrete
ways to apply this approach in your board. As a result of these programs, you
will:
·
Gain
knowledge of the Governance As Leadership framework with emphasis on strategic
and generative mode thinking;
·
Grasp
the implications of strategic and generative thinking for the design and
conduct of future board, committee and staff meetings;
·
Leave
with a toolkit of activities, methods, and practices for incorporating
strategic and generative thinking into the ongoing work of your board and
committee structure;
·
Develop
an initial action plan to apply these tools in the coming year.
Check out my latest LinkedIn blog post on: Tapping The
Connection between Scenario Thinking & Mental Models
In
preparation for a recent Board Of Directors Retreat, we engaged in two
activities that have been shown to increase the capacity of board leaders for
strategic and generative thinking. The results of these activities fueled the
move to increased strategic and generative governance on the part of this board
and others with whom we have worked. To learn more, check out my latest LinkedIn blog post on Getting to Strategic and
Generative Governance: Tapping The Connection between Scenario Thinking &
Mental Models at http://tinyurl.com/qa7hgwl
No comments:
Post a Comment