Is governance a board of directors activity or is it an operating system that includes the entire organization?

Yes,  this question was the title of my January 20th post.

I posed this question on a LinkedIn discussion group called the Nonprofit Board Forum to see what they thought.  You can check out the discussion by clicking here.  50% of the respondents agreed that governance was the role and responsibility of the board and the other 50%  regarded governance as an organizational system that involved shared leadership.

I find that to be a remarkable shift in governance thinking.  Does governance responsibilities extend beyond the board of directors into the organization? Does the CEO and the leadership team have a responsibility to take the baton from the board and do governance in the organization?Is this a shift in thinking about governance and organizations? Perhaps we are seeing a shift in how we think about organizations.

Margaret Wheatley in her book  Leadership and the New Science points to a new way to think about organizations — shifting from a view that organizations are seen as machines to organizations as networks. A shift that structure and control are needed to operate effective organizations to organizations as being seen as a network of relationships that order rather than control the organization.

Viewing governance as an operating system maybe part of that shift. If it is, we, as governance thinkers will need new ideas, new ways of thinking and talking about governance.

What do you think? Are we on the right track?

Enhanced by Zemanta
By on January 24, 2011   /   Nonprofit Board of Directors, Organization, Uncategorized  
4 Comments
  1. Jamie Schumacher
    4:21 pm on January 25, 2011

    In a word… yes. In two words… it depends. 🙂

    I think it varies from organization to organization. You already see this occuring in small organizations with working boards, so for nonprofits I wouldn’t say this is an entirely new phenomenon. And as orgs grow, networked boards can provide a way for board members to be engaged, rather than strictly govern or control. Wheatley describes this shift quite well – and I think it is an even more natural evolution for nonprofits than for-profit businesses.

    What will be interesting to see is how traditional organizations evolve to incorporate new practices and processes. In this respect, I think small to mid-size organizations might have more in their favor than larger, strictly hierarchical institutions.

    Have you read “The Starfish and the Spider?”

    • Lloyd VanderKwaak
      11:26 am on January 28, 2011

      Thank you Jamie for your comments. Since I have not read the book Starfish and the Spider, how does it speak to this topic?

  2. Jamie Schumacher
    8:43 pm on February 5, 2011

    The Starfish and the Spider speaks about essentially leaderless and networked organizational structures. It’s a quick and fun read – I circulated it around the board I was currently serving on after I read it and they really enjoyed it.