Presented by:
Frank Martinelli
The Center for Public Skills Training
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Assuring long term
financial sustainability
Alliances, partnerships
and strategic
restructuring
Measuring mission impact
Board and staff leadership
succession planning
Nonprofit advocacy and
public policy work
createthefuture.com
Emerging Common Ground
The Dynamic Board
McKinsey & Company
• Shape the mission
and vision
• Engage actively in
strategic decision
making and policy
decisions
Monitor & improve performance
• Select, evaluate,
develop the
Executive Director
• Ensure adequate
financial resources
• Provide expertise
and access
• Enhance reputation
of organization
• Oversee financial and risk management
• Monitor performance & ensure accountability
• Improve board performance
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Profile of the Future-Focused Board
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Visionary and futurefocused
Entrepreneurial spirit
Risk-takers
Strategic decision makers
Effective communicators
Systems thinkers
Partnership and alliance
builders
Diverse
Source: The Center for
Public Skills Training
createthefuture.com
Richard Chait, William Ryan
& Barbara Taylor
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Fiduciary Mode – Key Questions
 "How are we doing to date?"
 “Are we in compliance?”
 The board as “watchdog” - Anything wrong?
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Strategic Mode – Key Questions
 "What should we be doing?”
 "Where are we going?“
 The board as “strategist” - What’s the plan?
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Generative Mode – Key Questions
 “What are the new possibilities?”
 “What’s the new question?”
 The board as “sense-maker” - What’s coming next?”
createthefuture.com
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Fiduciary Mode – a key question
 “Did we get a clean audit?“ OR “What can we learn
from the audit?”
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Strategic Mode – a key question
 “Does the audit pinpoint any issues that are
strategic in nature?”
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Generative Mode – a key question
 “Does the audit hint at any emerging developments
that could significantly challenge our enterprise
model or financial condition long term”?
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Type I
Fiduciary
Type II
Strategic
Type III
Generative
Board’s
role
Steward/
Watchdog
Strategist
Sense Maker
Key
question
What’s
wrong?
What’s the
plan?
What’s the key
question?
Problems
are to be
Spotted
Solved
Framed
Way of
deciding
Reach
resolution
Reach
consensus
Reach
understanding
Proven Practices
1. Governance Committee leads the effort
2. Align board recruitment with your strategic plan
3. Engage the board in strategic thinking and
planning
4. Incorporate strategic and generative deliberation
into every board meeting
5. Use committees as "powerful engines of
governance"
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Leading the Effort
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Continuous focus on identifying, preparing
and recruiting future board leaders.
Plan board education including new member
orientation, ongoing training and board
retreats.
Assess board, chair, individual directors, and
board meetings.
Annually review governance practices and
recommend changes.
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Actively Managed Board Composition
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Review the strategic
plan.
Identify the skills,
knowledge and
relationships needed by
the board to advance
the strategic priorities.
Set clear strategic
recruiting priorities.
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Balancing
D I V E R S I T YDiversity
A N D C O Mand
M O NCommonality
ALITY
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Commonality in board members’ belief in the
nonprofit’s mission
Commonality in board members’ depth of
commitment
Commonality in terms of focus on strategic
work of the board
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Diversity in demographics
Diversity in linkages to different communities
and groups
Diversity in expertise
Diversity in thinking
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The Critical Link
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Diversity at the core of how nature finds
solutions.
Collective wisdom exceeds the sum of its parts.
Diverse viewpoints  innovation and creativity
Board that are good at all three governance
modes are stronger boards.
Engaging the Board
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Strategic Planning is the process by
which the guiding members of an
organization envision its future and
develop the necessary plans,
procedures and operations to achieve
that future.
6
Planning as a
Journey
Vision of
Intended Impact
Today’s Reality
createthefuture.com
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The mission, vision and goals your
organization will pursue
Whom you will serve
Your organization's role in the community
The kinds of programming, services or
products you will offer
The resources needed to succeed
How to best combine these resources,
programming and relationships for mission
impact
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Participates in strategic planning.
Formally approves the strategic plan.
Assures alignment of overall Board and
committee planning.
Assures that strategic plan guides Board
recruiting efforts.
Establishes and monitors outcomes.
Evaluates and updates strategic plan.
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Traditional Approach
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Board meetings emphasize transmission of
information and reports
Same agenda structure
Focus on the past and present
New Approach
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Emphasis on participation and action
Use meeting for strategic and generative
thinking
Meetings are outcome driven
Focus on the future
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 Effective recruitment – people
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who are passionate about the
mission, have needed skills,
knowledge, values, contacts
Solid board chair/executive
director partnership
Functioning committee and
workgroup structure
A strategic plan that the board
has had a hand in creating and
to which it is committed
Thinking about board meeting
process
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Bundle routine items
together
Eliminates the need
to vote separately on
many routine items
Expedites routine
business
Frees up time to
address critical
matters
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Committee and previous board meeting
minutes
Minor changes in a procedure
Routine revisions of policy
Updating documents, for example: office
address change
Standard contracts regularly used
Confirmation of conventional actions
required in bylaws (ex: signatory authority
for a bank account)
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This is the part of the agenda where the board
focuses on deliberation, decision-making and/or
education. This section becomes the centerpiece
of the board meeting:
 Presentation and discussion of Policy Public
Task Force on recommended issues agenda
for 2013 –ACTION ITEM
 Presentation, discussion and approval of
updated Strategic Plan – ACTION ITEM
 Final Review and Approval of Emergency
Succession Plan – ACTION ITEM
26
createthefuture.com
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Display up-to-date information about
key success factors
Increase the effectiveness of board
decision-making
Maintain board focus on governance
Corrective action can be taken before a
crisis erupts
Total Cumulative Costs/ Average Unit Costs
Compared to Target Unit Costs
End-Year Ratios
1.45
16,000,000
1.42
14,000,000
1.42
1.40
12,000,000
1.35
1.35
Ratio
Dollars
10,000,000
8,000,000
6,000,000
1.30
1.29
4,000,000
1.25
2,000,000
1.20
0
2006
2007
Assets
2008
Liabilities
2009
Ratio
“Can we cover current obligations?”
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Key Board Performance Indicators
Status
Attendance at Board meetings
Participation in committees,
work groups, task forces
Board meeting time devoted to
strategy and generative issues
Board action follow-up
completed
Actual
80%
70%
75%
80%
Goal
Key
90%
Green
Yellow
Red
90%
80%
70%
90%
Green
Yellow
Red
90%
80%
70%
75%
Green
Yellow
Red
75%
60%
<50%
80%
Green
Yellow
Red
80%
70%
<60%
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- Doug Eadie
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Committee participation as an
expectation
Help the board do governance
work
Structure aligned with
strategic plan
Standing committees - the
fewer the better
Use of task forces and
workgroups
Committee accountability
linked to strategic plan
createthefuture.com
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Committee
accountability linked
to strategic plan
Foremost critical
Issues worksheet
Critical issue briefing
papers
Other planning
approaches
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Strategies
Assigned to
Committee
EXAMPLE: Increase
the effectiveness of
the board and its
committees.
2014 Objective
EXAMPLE: The
Governance
Committee will
design a board
member evaluation
process, submit for
board approval,
perform the first
annual board/board
member evaluation
and report results by
October 1, 2014.
Quarterly
Committee
Progress/Results
EXAMPLE: Evaluation
process designed and
approved by
Governance Committee;
submitted for board
approval.
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Foremost
strategic
issues and
challenges
that the
organization
will need to
address over
the 1-3 years
How to
frame the
issue:
fiduciary,
strategic,
generative?
What roles
would be
appropriate
for the
board to
play in
addressing
each issue
Clarify the
board's need
for information
and education
re: this issue.
(To make good
decisions in
response to
this issue,
what will the
board need to
know and be
able to do?)
What
resources can
the Board
access to
help address
this issue?
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 Opportunities and threats for
the organization
 How are other associations are
responding?
 What major choices, decisions
and/or shifts in direction does
this issue challenge us to
consider?
 What are high leverage
strategies that will help us
respond to this issue?
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Understanding the interrelationships that shape
the behavior of the systems in which we work
and live – and of which we are a part.
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Helps us see patterns and learn to reenforce or change them rather than
focusing on isolated parts.
Understanding how our actions shape
our reality.
“What goes around comes around”.
“Things flushed down the toilet don’t
disappear -- they go someplace else”.
-- Buckminster Fuller
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Today’s problems come
from yesterday’s
solutions.
The harder you push,
the harder the system
pushes back.
Behavior grows better
before it grows worse.
The easy way out
usually leads back in.
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The cure can be worse
than the disease.
Faster is slower.
Cause and effect are
not closely related in
time and space.
Small changes can
produce big results.
There is no blame.
48
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The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to
the stormy present…. As our case is new, we
must think anew and act anew.
-- Abraham Lincoln
The world we have made as a result of the level
of thinking we’ve done thus far creates
problems that we cannot solve at the same
level at which we created them.… We shall
require a substantially new manner of thinking
if humankind is to survive.
-- Albert Einstein
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Mental models are the deep
beliefs and assumptions we
hold about how the world
works.
These models shape the
decisions we make in life,
the actions we take in
response to events, and the
ways in which we interpret
others' behavior.
createthefuture.com
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Sometimes mental models, also called
“paradigms”, don’t work anymore but we’ll
hold on anyway.
 Example: Learning can only take place in a
space called “the classroom”.
 Example: Library = Building with books.
 Example: Environmental organizations and
corporations are mortal enemies – can
never work together.
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Learning to unearth our
internal pictures of the
world, bringing them to
the surface, and holding
them up to tough
questioning.
Surfacing, clarifying, and
improving our internal
pictures of the world and,
understanding how they
shape our actions and
decisions.
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Unfreezing ourselves from
currently held beliefs,
knowledge or attitudes.
Absorbing new or
alternative beliefs,
knowledge attitudes and
behavior.
Decisions and actions
based on the new state of
mind.
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Something Happens
Maybe We Reflect
Maybe We Learn
Intend to Learn
Experience
We Learn
We Apply
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What shared Mental Models do we operate
from in the nonprofit sector – and in YWCAs that influence how we act internally and
externally?
Identify mental models driving our beliefs
and behaviors
 Gaps between mental model and reality?
 Gaps between mental model and what we do?
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“I am my position/job.”
The enemy is out
there.
The illusion of taking
charge.
The fixation on events.
The delusion of
learning from
experience.
Myth of leadership/
management team
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Can you identify a
learning disability that
impedes board or
organizational
effectiveness?
Force Field Analysis
Iceberg Worksheet
Keep Asking Why Worksheet
FORCES THAT
PROMOTE A
SOLUTION
Problem/Issue We Wish to Address
FORCES THAT
WORSEN THE
PROBLEM
ED
A
IC
N
TIO
NT N
RE TIO
PA A
G STR URE
SIN U AIL
EA FR L F
CR ND O
IN R A HO
C
GE S
AN VER
O
ON
R E VE
SU R O
ES M P
PR TO I
IC
BL L S
PU HOO
SC
FD
AF
ST
G
IN
OV S
PR KID
S
IM
IN AND FIT
ST N R O
RE TIO ONP
TE A
IN DUC G N
E ON
AM
FORCES THAT
PROMOTE A
SOLUTION
LOW STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT IN OUR SCHOOL
TO
ED
LV S
VO
IN WAY
OT UL
S N GF
NT IN
R E EAN
M
E
NC
TA S"
SIS DER
F R SI
AF U T
ST " O
IN
OM
FR Y
D
TE NIT
L A MU
ISO OM ES
OL D C RC
HO DE OU
SC EE ES
R
N
PA
AL
CI
SO ON
D
T
AN AC R N
IC IMP LEA
O
OM S
ON LEM S T
EC OB NES
PR AD I
RE
FORCES THAT
WORSEN THE
PROBLEM
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What is below the water
– below the level of
events?
What are the recurring
patterns of behavior?
What are the underlying
structures that support
these patterns?
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Use the iceberg framework to discuss
patterns related to an issue/problem:
1. Events: What has been happening?
2. Patterns: Have the same or similar things
been happening over time? What are the
trends we have seen?
3. Structure: Why is this happening? What
forces (including underlying mental models)
have created this behavior?
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Identify a problem or issue.
Ask “Why is this happening?”
Probe your answers by
asking the same question of
them.
Repeat this step.
Look and listen for new
insights about deeper
causes.
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The tools re-enforce
each other:
 Uncovering our mental
models allows us to SEE the
problem in a new way.
 Using a systems thinking
approach enables us to see
the connections among
different parts of the
problem.
 Learning as a team speeds
up the learning process and
results in better solutions.
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Step 1. State the focal issue or purpose.
Step 2. List the key factors that influence
the future in which our nonprofit will
operate.
Step 3. List the driving forces among these
key factors.
 Forces that are highly predictable or
predetermined (i.e. demographics)
 Forces that are uncertain (i.e. public opinion).
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Step 4. Rank the key factors and driving
forces by importance and by uncertainty.
Step 5. Develop alternate futures.
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BoardSource – www.boardsource.org
The Center for Association Leadership
www.asae.org
The Center for Public Skills Training
 Board Development Resources –
www.createthefuture.com/past_articles.htm
 Visionary Board Leadership Assessment http://bit.ly/SPpGs6
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