The UK-based Foundation for Good Governance has produced a 10-point plan for running an effective organisation. Although intended for nonprofits, a glance at corporate misdeeds featured daily on business pages suggests the tips may have some relevance to companies too. Here's the short version, with full text available among the Foundation's research reports - or download pdf directly here. The Foundation is encouraging distribution under a Creative Commons licence.
1. Dig out the constitution, memorandum and articles, trust deed or other such governing document and read it. It probably needs to be read more than once - and it must be understood by the Board and staff, not just those who wrote it.
2. Make sure that all members of the board and staff have read and understand the organisation’s business or other plans, and that there are clear priorities or targets, budgets and financial information to match the plan.
3. Ensure you have the right mix of people, skills and abilities to support and develop your organisation and its plan.
4. Develop a written set of policies and procedures to guide the organisation and ensure everyone is working in a coherent way, including a code of conduct for the Board.
5. Take meetings seriously. Most of the board’s work is carried out in meetings – so how they are run requires regular attention.
6. Make sure your Board members are well informed – they can’t fulfil their role without quality information. Well prepared reports, papers and proposals distributed in advance of meetings play a part in achieving quality decisions.
7. Ensure that financial reporting is given due importance, and that Board members can understand what is being said and recommended. Do not rely on decisions made ‘on advice’ or ‘in good faith’. That is a high risk strategy.
8. Spend time on building good relationships - these underpin and determine the quality of discussion and decision making.
9. Ensure the Board understands that it is their role to manage the manager. It is the board’s role to ensure that their key workers are well managed.
10. Last - or perhaps it should it be first - organisations need direction and leadership. That’s up to the Board.
The ten tips are based on the Foundation's long experience in the field, and also research recently carried out for the UK Home Office. I made a modest contribution, and you can see the results here.
We'll be exploring these issues and more at a conference on Participation in Governance on September 24 2004. More later on that.
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