Governance Conference

Below is a reprint of a column published in The News Tribune on November 21, 2004.

“There is no question that the nonprofit sector has a board problem.” These words begin Governance as Leadership, a new book about nonprofit boards by three leading writers in the nonprofit field, Dick Chait, Bill Ryan and Barbara Holland.

Bill Ryan was keynoter at the fifth annual Nonprofit Governance Conference held here in Tacoma. Ryan reported on the results of the research he and his co-authors conducted over the last three years into what can be done to improve the effectiveness of nonprofit boards.

At the core of the report is the concept “that there are three modes of governance that comprise governance as leadership.” These modes are fiduciary, strategic and generative. The first two are easier to grasp because they describe the work that many effective boards are already doing. When working in the fiduciary mode, boards are focused on stewardship of assets. In the strategic mode they, in partnership with management, chart the organization’s course for the future.

Generative thinking is something else again. We are all familiar with it in our work and in our lives. We are always gaining knowledge, observing activities and gathering data. What we do with all that – the conclusions we reach or the ideas that are generated – are the result of generative thinking.

The trouble is, nonprofit boards don’t do this. At least not very often. Ryan laid out some strategies they can utilize to bring generative thinking into their work and thus to create governance as leadership.

This is a very important book. Anyone on a nonprofit board should read it. It is available at from www.boardsource.org or www.amazon.com.