MEANING

Communication works well when both speaker and listener have a common understanding of what each word means. The same is true of your organization: if the “meaning” of your organization is unclear to the board members, volunteers, staff, or public, then triumphs may be difficult to achieve.

The board of directors forms the cornerstone to any corporate, charitable, or nonprofit organization. A well-functioning board is the first design element of success of an organization. Over 30 years of chairing, serving on, or supporting boards gives us the breadth and depth the review existing board practices, rewrite codes of conduct, or orient new/existing board members to their roles.

Without a good foundation, a building cannot stand and the same is true for an organization. The Bylaws, Constitution, Policy Manuals, and Operating Procedures are the foundation documents of your organization. Have you reviewed them recently? Are they referred to often? Do you make decisions that are not aligned with your founding documents? Q32 Consulting consultants can help.

All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved. - Sun Tzu. I have watched many organizations jump directly to tactics (a course of action) without consideration of the strategy implications. Soon, the unintended consequences begin to pile up and the plan craters. Management efficiency and resource-use maximization begins with effective strategy development coming out of a vision, mission, and objective.

From Carver’s Policy Governance Model to a variety of hybrid formations, the deliberate consideration of how your organization is governed is a fundamental step in maintaining the health and sustainability of your organization. We have worked with key decision makers to design the policy manuals for organizations providing diverse needs such as community safety, member benefits, or social enterprises. We have also devised strategies to ensure compliance through board calendars, annual policy reviews, and internal auditing.

Everyone is an expert in Robert’s Rules of Order but few have ever read the 706 pages of the “classic work on parliamentary procedure.” Do you need someone who has actually been lulled to sleep by its arcane rules and procedures to advise your board, resolve procedural issues, or act as a Parliamentarian at your AGM? Call us. We’ll wake up long enough to help you out.

The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant. - Max de Pree. So every leader is also a follower. We can help you establish a mutually supportive environment at your agency which encourages both leadership and followership behaviours and values individual assets leading to mission achievement.

Cornell University defines a fiduciary duty as a legal duty to act solely in another party's interests. Your board members have a fiduciary responsibility to your organization but what does that mean in practice? How do you mitigate conflicts of interest and ensure that decisions are fair and balanced? Perhaps a workshop or the creation of a code of conduct would help.