The benefits and risks of teams working remotely Over the past few years, beliefs about how, where, and when work is performed have shifted, and emplo...
Charities are at the heart of social ecosystems and play a vital role in building and sustaining flourishing communities. Yet, charities face several ...
Articles on Governance and Leadership in Purpose Driven Organisations.
Leadership
Leading Change That Sticks: The Board’s Role
Are you part of the problem? It’s January and with New Year’s Resolutions fresh, it’s a time to contemplate change. Few would dispute that we are facing a time of what seems like increasing change and complexity. Failure to convert intention to action is a major risk in planning and responding to the changing landscape. What if as a director, and as a board, your own unconscious motivators around change were part of the reason for change being unsustainable in your organisation?
Corrinne Armour
Book Review
The Australian Guide to Chairing Meetings — Book Review
Years of experience have shown that the most efficient way to transact the business of a meeting is to have a clear set of rules that ensure that every decision is made in accordance with democratic principles, that minority opinion is respected, and that few dominating individuals cannot impose their will on the rest of the group.” Marjorie Puregger’s The Australian Guide to Chairing Meetings is a compact but comprehensive resource on the formal structures associated with holding a meeting.
Julia Duffy
Governance
Enabling Better Decisions at the Board Table
High performing boards make decisions At the recent Better Boards Conference, Nonie Wales and Morri Young of Matrix on Board gave a presentation on ‘Board Business: Sharing the load’. They defined a high performing board as one that: is well lead makes decisions has good information all members participate in board business Whilst other defining characteristics of a high performing board could be added to this list, few would disagree with what they outlined.
Board Buddies
One of the biggest complaints made against non-profit organisations by members is that they are not consulted and not informed about what is happening. As the non-profit sector continues to develop, there has been a move away from boards made up of representative directors towards boards comprising independent, skills-based directors. While most would applaud this development, there have been a number of unintended consequences. The first has been a degree of separation anxiety.
Paul Grogan
Governance and Legal Risk Management
The terms governance, clinical governance and legal risk are much bandied about but hold different meanings for different people. Some of the possible interpretations include:- Minimising Liability – particularly steps to reduce liability and exposure. Accountability – improving accountability and transparency within organisations, particularly decision making. Risk management – dealing with legal risk, financial risk and business risk within an enterprise. Compliance – meeting statutory, regulatory and other requirements. In the usual context legal risk management relates to how boards can be satisfied that risks and liabilities within an enterprise are being addressed.
Michael Gorton
Non-Profit Fact Sheets
What is the difference between a not-for-profit and a non-profit organisation?
There is no difference between a non-profit organisation and a not-for-profit organisation. These two terms are simply different ways of describing the same type of entity. There are several more terms that are sometimes used to describe these types of organisations and the sector they constitute, these include: for-purpose, third sector, community business, civil society, non-governmental, social-benefit. The abbreviations for these terms are also used, including: NFPs (not-for-profits), NGOs (non-governmental organisations), NPOs (non-profit organisations), NPIs (non-profit institutes).
Better Boards
Financial Statements Demystified — Book Review
David Hey-Cunningham’s Financial Statements Demystified was written for business and non-profit leaders who have a limited formal understanding of financial statements and accounting principles. With this book, Hey-Cunningham seeks to provide readers with a basic introduction to these matters in order to assist them to better understand their organisation or business and, in turn, for those enterprises to become more successful and sustainable. Although this text is not specifically aimed at non-profit organisations it is invaluable as an Australian resource on financial statements and financial management that is easily as relevant to the non-profit sector as to the business world.
Board Recruitment
Director Recruitment – The Habitat for Humanity Approach
No longer are board positions in not-for-profits simply given to a willing friend of the Board or CEO. Recruiting directors with the right values, skill, experience and commitment is one of the key responsibilities and most important undertakings of a board and is arguably even more important for not-for-profit (NFP) boards. Search and selection of directors with the right skills to contribute to the growth and development of Habitat for Humanity Australia (HFHA) is challenging as we operate in an increasingly complex environment with greater compliance burden and higher expectations of efficiency, accountability and transparency.
Chris Franks
Directors at Work: A Practical Guide for Boards
Directors at Work: A Practical Guide for Boards by Geoffrey Kiel, Gavin Nicholson, Jennifer Ann Tunny and James Beck is a substantive reference manual for all types of board directors. Directors at Work is a generous text, both in size and in breadth of content. The 818-page book addresses a huge range of issues applicable to directors and offers a practical approach to each. Directors at Work is not the type of book you should attempt to read over a weekend (as I did), nor is it something you should scramble to speed read before your first board meeting.
Board Performance & Metrics
How To Perform a Self-Health Check-up for NFPs
“How do we know that we are doing well?” “Do we really need to ask and pay someone else to say that we are a healthy organisation or an organisation in need of help?” “We did ask someone else before about whether we are performing well or not, and we realised that we knew all the answers when the outsider started to talk about the solutions we were searching for. We didn’t exactly know the questions though.
Albert Kuruvila