Association
Resources believes in building the volunteer leadership because
it creates a healthier, stronger organization. One of the primary tools we
recommend for leadership development is the CEO Symposium offered by the American
Society of Association Executives (ASAE).
This program offers a plethora of ideas
and strategies for association governance as well as leadership teambuilding
opportunities.
Turning Point
The CEO Symposium could easily be a
pivotal event for the leadership of an association. Conveying the value of
this program is not unlike parents advising parents-to-be that their life
will never be the same once the baby is born. The parents-to-be just can’t
imagine how dramatic that change will be. Well, prepare yourself for the same
type of experience.
The CEO
Symposium opens your eyes, gives you
the information you need to move your association forward, and builds your
leadership team. Your views on association governance may never be the same.
As the executive director for a new
client, I had the opportunity to attend the CEO Symposium for the first time.
In most cases, AR spends years convincing boards that they need to incorporate
this program into their budget. Our new client had already made the commitment,
as it was one of the many steps they were taking to move from an administrative
board mired in management details to a governing board guided by strategic
objectives.
The timing of the symposium was perfect
for us. We had just started working together three weeks earlier and the board
would be transitioning its leadership in three months. Attending the program
with me were the incoming president and vice president, the leadership I would
be working with for the next two years.
Because we were a new team, the team-building
segment of the program was particularly important. The symposium leaders brought
us together to define our individual roles, the expectations we had of each
other, and our work styles and preferences. This was done within the context
of our association’s strategic goals.
Exploring the realities of how administrative
boards typically operate vs. how strategic governing boards should govern
significantly impacted our views on the direction our board should take. We
knew the administrative model was no longer our preferred operating method.
However, we didn’t know how to move from one operating style to the other.
This dilemma was partially solved at the symposium through discussion and
deliberation.
And then beginning on page 162 of our
manual, there it was, nicely outlined for us: “Implementing Knowledge-Based
Strategic Governance.”
One Obvious Solution
The first bullet states that for boards
that want to move away from the administrative details of day-to-day management
don’t put administrative details on the board agenda because boards will discuss
what is on the agenda.
But, of course, why didn’t we think
of that?
Changing our agenda was our first step
towards strategic governance. At our board meeting we assigned oversight responsibilities,
priorities and target dates to our strategic objectives. We discussed action
requests that related to the strategic plan and sent back to committee those
items hat were not board issues.
It wasn’t a perfect process but it
was a start.
Staying on Track
We reverted to old habits a few times.
It was hard to let go of the administrative details, and we couldn’t incorporate
everything in our first meeting. But in our reach for success as a governing
board, one of the guiding principles is a board should define and delegate,
rather than react and ratify.
Another key principle addresses how
boards spend their time. The board should not be collecting information and
then reviewing what was done. A board should spend its time using information
and determining what needs to be done next, and spend 80 percent of its meeting
time in dialogue, deliberation, and decision-making about issues of strategic
direction and/or policy.
Staff and volunteer work groups should
report to the board only when there is something getting in their way and
that something needs to be dealt with by the board. Otherwise, it’s not a
board worthy issue.
There’s More
A few columns of text barely serves
as an introduction to knowledge-based strategic governance. If you’re interested
in finding out more about the CEO Symposium, talk to your executive director.
Make the investment in your leaders and the association’s future. You can’t
imagine the effect it will have.
Making changes at the board level won’t be easy, but
the benefits will outweigh the difficulties — not unlike becoming a parent!
Return
To Articles
