BOARD DEVELOPMENT COURSE

3 SESSIONS | WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 3 & 17 |10 – 11:30AMINSTRUCTOR ANNE ACKERSON

This program is made possible with support from American Express Foundation and the New York State Council on the

Arts, a State Agency

Leading by Design:

Maintaining the Momentum with Training

• Why Train?• The Training Spectrum• The Wisdom of Teams• Team Performance Curve• Attributes of the High Performing Team• Team-building Tactics• Maintaining Culture, Identity and Participation• Matrix of Board Activities to Training Possibilities• Logistics and Tips

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Why Train?2

“Training is a mixture of knowledge and skills.” – Lew Ireland, Ph.D.

President of the American Society for the Advancement of Project Management

• You have just formed the board

• You have many new board members

• You have just experienced a significant turnover of board members

• Your board has never received any formal training on how to be a board or decided what kind of board they want to be

• Your board could benefit from a “refresher” on some fundamental principles of board effectiveness

• The board is attempting to create something new

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Before embarking on training activities, ask yourself:  Will training be used to address deficiencies of knowledge or skill among the board members, or deficiencies of execution in getting meaningful results?

Deficiencies in Knowledge or Skills Deficiencies of Execution to Get Meaningful Results

Board roles and responsibilities Poor management of meetings

Structuring the work of the board to optimize effectiveness

Poor decision-making and problem solving

Developing the appropriate working relationship with professional staff

Strained interpersonal relationships among board members and between board and staff

Understanding and accepting the role of fiduciary oversight

Little or no accountability for results

Understanding and accepting responsibility for fundraising and resource development

Unwillingness to raise money

Competing personal agendas

Unresolved disagreements/conflicts

Unproductive work practices

(Mike HoffFormer Nonprofit Services Education & Consulting Director, Center for Nonprofit Management, Los Angeles)

The Training Spectrum4

The more interactive the training, the higher the level of board engagement.

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The Wisdom of Teams7

“Teams are a flexible and efficient way to enhance organizational performance. They are the key to improving performance in all kinds of organizations. Yet today's business leaders consistently overlook opportunities to exploit their potential, confusing teams with teamwork, empowerment, or participative management.

In The Wisdom of Teams, the authors argue that we cannot meet the challenges ahead – from total quality to customer service to innovation – without teams.”

Book of the same title by Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith, 1999

Team Performance Curve

Katzenbach and Smith have found there is a team performance curve on which different

kinds of teams exist from work groups to high performance team.

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Performance Impact

Attributes of the High Performing Team

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Small in number Complementary skills Meaningful purpose or mission Clear, measurable goals Clear working approach Sense of mutual accountability

Katzenbach and Smith have identified these six attributes of the high performing team:

Can nonprofit boards be high performing teams?

Is yours?

Team Building Tactics

Develop a mission statement for the board itself Select team members based on skills, not personalities Pay particular attention to first meetings and actions Set up some clear rules of behavior Set and seize upon a few immediate performance-oriented

tasks and goals Challenge the group regularly with fresh facts and

information Spend lots of time together Exploit the power of positive feedback recognition and

reward

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Maintaining Culture, Identity and Participation

Understand and share the history of your organization Periodically tell stories about how the organization was founded;

how it overcame obstacles; its high points and low points As a group, create a timeline for the organization’s development;

put the timeline in a visible location where board, volunteers and staff can see it and add to it

Take time to celebrate the good stuff .. And the small wins

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Revisit the basics on a regular basis Talk about the purpose, approach

Inject new information and approaches into the board’s ongoing work

Fresh facts and different perspectives keep people engaged Take advantage of facilitators and training

Change the board’s membership, including the leader

Matrix of Board Activities to Training Possibilities

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Logistics and Tips

Provide training prep materials and agendas to participants in advance

Develop agendas that use a variety of learning methods and that vary the size of the group

Develop agendas that accommodate breaks and movement of people

Flipchart the discussion Offer opportunities during training and immediately after to

debrief what is being learned and how it might be applied Begin and end on time Follow-up with pertinent new information

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Is Your Board Room Conducive to Building a High Performing Team?

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Which of these pictures looks like your board meeting space?

Physical Considerations14

Table Configuration Comfortable chairs Good Lighting Not too hot or too cold Room large enough for folks to get up

and stretch/break into smaller discussion groups

Wall space for flipcharts Nametags or table tags Refreshments or meals if the session

spans a meal time

NYS ARTS BLOG www.nysarts.typepad.com

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Webinars on the BLOG!

o Ask questions

o Review Topics

o Share information

o Explore new ideas

Next Session

Wednesday September

17th

“Leadership in

Transition”

Webinars on the BLOG!

o Ask questions

o Review Topics

o Share information

o Explore new ideas

Next Session

Wednesday September

17th

“Leadership in

Transition”

On to the Blog! If you were to create a matrix of

your current training opportunities, what would it look like?

How would you move low training potential/low board involvement activities into higher quadrants?