Board of Directors
Identifying Key Roles and
Responsibilities in Board to Foster
Sustainable Long Term Growth
BUSN610 – Organizational Behavior
Randy Stenger, David Stanley, Patty Lester, Adam Klecker
October 14, 2011
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Agenda
• Organizational Overview
• Board of Directors
• Current Challenges
• Recommendations
• Discussion
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Overview of HealthFinders Collaborative
• HealthFinders provides quality, accessible, and culturally appropriate
healthcare services, at no cost, to low-income and uninsured residents of
greater Rice County
• Largely serves immigrants and refugees
• Partners with many local area hospitals,
clinics, pharmacies to provide care and
medication
• Primarily volunteer based, with
a small staff
• Main contact: Charlie Mandile
Executive Director
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Board Overview
• Most board members are health care professionals with
various skill sets and experience
• Board expansion is desirable, but finding volunteers who can
put in the time and effort can be a challenge
• Board would ideally be balanced between the two largest
communities HealthFinders serves – Fairbault and Northfield
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Board Challenges
• Current board consists of 10-11 members, with typical
membership between 15-20 members
• Imbalance regarding experience and skill sets
• Lack of member succession plan
• Board lacks an outline of what skill sets, experience, and
connections it would like to have on staff
• Board lacks goals on what it would like to accomplish
• Board lacks clear directions in running meetings, agendas,
and leadership amongst members
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Recommendations
• Perform Board Assessments
• Start Development Meetings
• Support Change Through ADKAR
• Create Board Development Plan
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Board Assessment
– Benchmarks and assesses perceived weakness
and strengths
– Suggest performing bi-annually (2 yrs) to monitor
perception and reality. Annually there after.
– Outcome of assessment will identify:
• Gaps in roles and responsibilities (Structural Frame)
• Gaps in goals and objectives (Structural Frame)
• Gaps in support and development (HR Frame)
• Gap in networks and credibility (Political Frame)
• Gaps in perception within the organization and the
community (Symbolic Frame)
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Board Assessment Example
United Way Checklist of Nonprofit Organizational Indicators, Edited by: Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD
Cite: http://managementhelp.org/organizationalperformance/nonprofits/
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Board Assessment
– Identify key areas of interest/concern
• Goals, roles, responsibilities, training, network, etc
– Hold individual interviews with Board members
– Explore Hanna’s OP Model questions
– What are you objectives?
•
To establish how the Board views there role and responsibilities to
the organization
– What helps you achieve these objectives?
•
Establishes individual strengths that could be capitalized on
– What prevents you from accomplishing these objectives?
•
Identifies where potential flaws exist in the support of the
organization.
– Always keep the Board involved
• Summarize key findings with Board.
• Create development meetings
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Development Meetings
• Hold separate development meetings from general
monthly meetings
• Development meetings consist of:
– Review and discussion about assessment
– Allow for dialogue to address concerns or
misunderstandings
– Focus on developmental areas or concern
– Build shared goals and objectives
– Create shared performance metrics
– Agree on performance review times
– Create expectations for board members around
commitment
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Setting Board’s Goals
• Board is responsible for guiding HealthFinders through transition
• Board’s objectives should incorporate elements of ADKAR model:
– Create Awareness: Communicate why change is necessary
• “In order to provide health care to all in our community that need it (Vision) more
services/capacity is necessary”
– Promote Desire: Why should individuals in organization want to change?
• “Allows us to serve more of our community”
• “We have a growing base of those in need; without expansion, the numbers of those
who go without healthcare increases.”
– Facilitate Knowledge: Identify the skills/expertise your employees/volunteers
need to succeed in transition
• Training?
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Board Goals Cont.
– Ability: Considering necessary skill requirements, assess the organization’s ability
to perform these tasks
• Are there knowledge gaps that can be filled through new volunteers or hires?
• Are there individuals who excel in ability that can train other employees?
• Do current or oncoming Board member have the necessary time to commit?
• Does each Board member understand the duties required to serve on the Board, and do
they possess those skills? Can HealthFinders communicate this during recruitment?
– Reinforce the change: Determine how the Board will provide ongoing support to
the organization to make sure the change takes root
• How will the success of HealthFinders be measured? How will the board measure itself
(assessment)?
• Are appropriate incentives in place to drive desired behaviors like fundraising?
• How will you keep the goals top of mind to the organization?
Additional Resources: http://www.change-management.com/tutorial-adkar-overview.htm
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New Board Members – Attributes
• A successful transition will require a strong board that can effectively lead
change.
• Assessment and introspection should identify areas where the current
Board is potentially underrepresented in Change Leadership abilities
• Bethel 4R Model Provides Framework
for Transformational Leaders through the
“Roles” Definition
– Direction Setter
• Understands customer needs, the organization,
and the solution
• Can define where organization needs to go
• Effectively lays out plans to get there
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Attributes Cont.
– Change Agent
• Monitors how organization is performing in relation to change
• Identifies gaps in terms of what needs to be done
• Looks forward to what will be needed to sustain change
– Coach
• Identifies those who need help
• Helps individuals become more effective
• Develops talent for future board members/employees/volunteers
• Prepares organization
– Spokesperson
• In touch with “customers” – what are they saying?
• Handles customer objections
• Responsible for communicating Vision internally and to
community/customers/donors
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Summary
• Recommendations
– Board Assessment
– Implementation of Developmental Meetings
– ADKAR model incorporated into Board’s goal setting process
– Important attributes/skill sets for new members
• Questions
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