September/October 2007 Issue

COVER STORY:
Policy Governing Boards:  A Cautionary Note
By Don Page 

The increasingly popular policy governance board, or Carver model named after its originator, was designed to overcome problems associated with overactive micro-managing and underactive “rubber stamping” boards. For those reasons it has great value for boards of Christian organizations in that it offers a coherent and clearly defined approach to forward looking governance.

However, when the CEO or senior pastor is the sole conduit of information going to the board, the board may find that  despite meticulously setting out performance expectations and executive limitations it does not have all the information needed to evaluate the success of the organization and its leader.

Results can be produced by many means, not all of which are healthy for the long-term functioning of the organization. Processes for accomplishing those results and the level of staff satisfaction or interpersonal relationships are also important in a servant-led Christian ministry.

To ensure the board has a full picture of what is happening in the organization, it should periodically conduct a staff and volunteer climate survey to determine their degree of satisfaction with the results, processes and relationships.

One method for doing this is to use the questions for assessing the best Christian charities in Canada (www.bcwinstitute.com/ca/default.aspx).

Another method is to conduct regular staff and volunteer assessments of the CEO. A board-initiated climate survey or 360-degree review will enable the board to have a realistic assessment of the CEO and the health of the organization beyond mere end or outcome assessments, which can ignore or distort pertinent data, such as the rate of staff or volunteer turnover, in favour of the CEO’s performance.

In Christian organizations, the how and the why things are done are as important as what is being accomplished. Well functioning policy governance boards must have their own independ-ent means for determining the overall health of the ministry and not only what the CEO says it is. Ministry boards are responsible to constituents and God for ensuring mission fulfilment.

Information on the policy governance model for boards can be found at www.carvergovernance.com. 

Don Page is senior fellow and professor of leadership studies at Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C.