Oops...That Was a Bad Decision!

Have any of you been part of or observed bad board decision-making?

I'm a great believer that there is wisdom in group decision-making -- it takes more time, sure -- but it's usually more informed and creative than decision-making by an individual. So, the mere thought of a board making a collective bad decision (and bad can run the gamut from just plain ill-informed to downright criminal) leaves me to wonder about the underlying dynamics of the group, as well as the ability of each member to put the well-being of the organization before all else.

Having said that, I think that bad decisions get made when the will of one or two board members overrides the concerns of the others or when a majority of board members have mentally or physically 'checked out' of the discussion. These are examples of group dynamics at their poorest.

Bad decisions also happen when the information board members receive is of poor quality or is incomplete. Since it's difficult, if not impossible, to know every nuance about every issue that comes before a board, members ought to be aware of what is not known as well as what is. Knowing what one doesn't know puts what is known in perspective. That helps better decision-making.

Of course, not all issues/decisions are equal so understanding which ones have the greatest consequences for the organization is critically important (and a critically important leadership characteristic). Otherwise, the attention of a board and its staff could be diverted toward superficial or trivial matters that are better handled by others (committees, staff members or volunteers, for example).

Photo: Which way? by .Leili

Comments

Back in the Saddle

MY LAST POST WAS NOVEMBER 2012, A LIGHT YEAR AWAY it seems, that marked the beginning of a long push toward completing a manuscript on history museum leadership with my co-author, Joan Baldwin. We finally submitted 350+ pages to our editor at Rowman & Littlefield this week. If all goes well, we expect the book to be available in early 2014. It's taken us two years to get to this point, so six more months or so of revision and production don't seem too long to wait until we can hold the final product in our hands (and you can, too!). The project put a lot of things on hold, including this blog. I'm glad to be back writing about intentional leadership -- leading by design -- for nonprofit boards and staffs. Certainly, my thoughts are now informed by the forthcoming book, in which Joan and I posit that nonprofits need to focus resources on leadership, not just management. Most cultural nonprofits are at a crossroad, as is the sector in general, where nothing is qu

Change for Your Board in 2010: A Polling Update

WE'RE A DAY INTO MY LAST POLL (SEE RIGHT) AND the responses are clustering in two areas: 1) removing dead wood from the board and 2) using better/different tools to make decisions/evaluate performance. There are still six days left for your colleagues to cast their vote! In the meantime, those of you who are in need of tools for decision-making might want to check my posts on taking stock here , here and here .

Three Most Important Nonprofit Executive Director Soft Skills

If you were asked to narrow down the list of executive director qualifications to the three most important, which ones would you identify? Would the list consist of soft skills, hard skills, or some combination? Would your list be based on the great ED you are or one you've worked for, or would it be your wish list for the ED you haven't been fortunate yet to work for? This was an assignment in my recent online class in leadership and administration for the American Association for State and Local History . I asked the class to review three-five advertisements for museum directors and analyze what these listings intimated about the organization’s past experience, current focus and goals, and future aspirations. Then, I asked the class to identify what they consider to be the three most important qualifications they would look for in a director. (Okay, so there's more than three if you dissect my three big groups.) Soft skills outnumbered hard skills, although

Leading by Design

Search This Blog