Building a Healthy Cohesive BoardDr. Bruce HekmanThe Van Lunen CenterCalvin College

From The Advantage

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Healthy Minimal politics Minimal confusion High morale High productivity Low turnover

Healthy organizations“The vast majority of organizations today have more than enough intelligence, expertise, and knowledge to be successful. What they lack is organizational health.”

“An organization that is healthy will inevitably get smarter over time. That’s because people in a healthy organization, beginning with the leaders, learn from each other, identify crucial issues, and recover quickly from mistakes.”

What does a healthy board look like?

The Four Disciplines Modelfrom The Advantage, by Patrick Lencioni

Discipline 1: Build a Cohesive Leadership Team

Discipline 2: Create Clarity Discipline 3: Overcommunicate Clarity Discipline 4: Reinforce Clarity

Building a Cohesive Leadership Board A board is a small group of people who

are collectively responsible for achieving a common objective for their organization.

Effective boards communicate through: AdvocacyStating your case; making your point

Inquiry (more important that advocacy)

Asking questions to seek clarity about another person’s statement of advocacy.

Collective responsibilityCollective responsibility implies, more than anything else, selflessness and shared sacrifices from board members.

Two big sacrifices are time and emotion.

Five principles of effective teams Trust Conflict Commitment Accountability Results

Building trust – a board chair’s role Trust: everyone is vulnerable enough to

be transparent, honest enough to admit mistakes, weaknesses; the ability to abandon pride and fear, to sacrifice ego for the collective good.

Building trust: a retreat model Personal histories: (the leader goes first)

born where? How many siblings? Birth order? What was the most interesting or difficult challenge as a kid?

Profiling: Strengths-Based Leadership, by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie, Gallup Press

Trust is the foundation that makes teamwork possible.

Using Strengths-Finder Everyone will have their top five

strengths (out of a total of 34 possible) Mine: Belief, Input, Arranger, Leaner, Connectedness Plot the group on the “Four Domains of

Leadership Strength”: Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building, Strategic Thinking.

Using Strengths-Finder It’s another tool for to better understand

yourself and others. It provides neutral language for

discussing relationship behavior. It’s accessible (doesn’t require an

expert) and relatively cheap ($20) It’s a great tool for matching people

with tasks or roles

“Conflict not only is possible in Christian community, it may be a necessary by-product of community that is an important catalyst for growth as we learn to adjust to the differences caused by the diversity of community. No conflict may suggest no diversity, and possibly no growth.”

Walter Wright, p. 139 Relational Leadership

“Communities need tensions if they are to grow and deepen. Tensions come from conflicts…A tension or difficulty can signal the approach of a new grace of God. But it has to be looked at wisely and humanly.” Jean Vanier, p. 120-121, Community and Growth

“Conflict is about issues and ideas, while accountability is about performance and behavior.” Patrick Lencioni, p. 60, The Advantage

Conflict in a Christian community?

You can develop a healthy robust community that lives right with God and enjoys its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor. James 3:18 (The Message)

The dance of the porcupines

The Dance of the Porcupines

Discussion Argument

Mastering conflictWhen there is trust, conflict becomes nothing but a pursuit of truth, an attempt to find the best possible answer.Overcoming the tendency to run from discomfort is one of the most important requirements for any leadership team or board.When people fail to be honest with one another about an issue they disagree on, their disagreement around that issue festers and ferments over time until it transforms into frustration around that person.

Mastering conflict The conflict continuum

Artificial harmony * Mean-Spirited personal attacks

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constructive destructive*Ideal conflict point

Mastering conflict“Nowhere does the tendency toward artificial harmony show itself more than in mission-driven nonprofit organizations, most notably churches. What they’re doing is confusing being nice with being kind.

Peacekeeping or peacemaking?

Peacekeeping avoids conflict and seeks appeasement.

Peacemaking (God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God.)

The first rule of St. Benedict’s “Rule of Life:” “Listen, carefully, my son, to the master’s instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart.”

“Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger.” James 1:19

“The greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention.” Richard Moss

Select time and place (free from distractions)

Listen until they are satisfied

Listen! (and not just to the words)

Speak“Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that

your words will be an encouragement to those

who hear them.”Ephesians 4:29

Listen long; talk short.

Tools for board chairsMining for conflict“By looking for and exposing potential and even subtle disagreements that have not come to the surface, the board chair (and board members) avoid the destructive parking lot conversations that inevitably result when people are reluctant to engage in direct, productive debate.”

Real Time PermissionGiving immediate, positive feedback, when board members engage in constructive debate.

Create clear expectations and boundariesSilence will be interpreted as disagreementAt the end of the discussion, the board chair goes around the table and asks every board member for a formal commitment to the decision

Tools for Boards Creating CovenantsEstablish your ‘rule of life’ as a board community, by articulating guiding values and principles, agreeing on practices that will help you live your values.

DiscernmentWe make decisions; wisdom is a gift of the Spirit. The key for boards is to learn to listen well.

Invite God to be present.

Listen with your entire self (the ears of your heart)

Do not interrupt.Pause between speakers to absorb what has been said.Do not challenge what others say. Rather, ask questions

that enable you to wonder about things together.Create a safe space for all to speak.Hold your desires and opinions lightly.

DiscernmentThe virtue of silence

“When there have been too many words, people are no longer listening well or are starting to repeat themselves, and process is stuck. It is the leader’s job to call the group to silence, which creates space for the Spirit to work.”

After the silence ask: how did God speak to you in this silence?

A Healthy Board Peace and unity are two indicators of

board health

Resource: Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2012