Have you heard the joke about the board?

A pastor, consultant and governance expert walk into the board room of a Christian organization and ask, “What kind of board are you?”

The board answers: “We are a Policy Board, or at least we are trying to be.”

If it were a joke, it would be a bad one. There’s no punch line. But it’s not a joke. It’s actually a large part of my occupational life. Whether it is a Christian charity, church or school, 99 percent of the time the question, “What kind of board are you?”, is answered excitedly, “We practice Policy Governance!”

Policy above all

It seems like among our Christian circles, leadership has lifted Policy Governance to the level of the Ten Commandments: we shall practice it according to the methods developed by John Carver in the late 1970s and early 1980s! Carver formally introduced the model in a book published in 1990, Boards That Make a Difference. His framework was designed to provide a systematic and principle-driven approach to board governance, emphasizing clarity in roles, accountability and strategic leadership.

It’s good, but if that is the only thing the board is doing, it’s an organizational and missional handcuff.

Thirty years of watching Christian charities espousing Policy Governance has led me to see a recurring problem: disengaged boards and board members. The consequence of disengaged boards are ministries that do not grow. The system is blocked up and backed up when Executive Directors and boards only look for a policy adaptation or answer to every particular challenge, problem or strategic path. And even if they’re not creating a policy, they are certainly reluctant to become proactive about key issues or challenges. “Better to write a policy, pass all productive efforts to staff, or commit something to prayer rather than create and execute a plan we participate in,” they say.

Proactively adapt

There is growing evidence, first propelled by Harvard’s Chait, Ryan and Taylor in Governance as Leadership (2005), that the best boards are adaptive. Sometimes they are hands-on (Operational), sometimes they act strategically (Generative) and yes, sometimes they write policy and procedures (Policy). They take on any of the three forms of governance appropriate to the need.
The real key is to know when to do which behaviour. (Perhaps more on that in future issues.)

The early church

Want biblical proof that good leadership does more than concern itself with policy? Look to the early church in Jerusalem. Sometimes, they speak of theological matters (circumcision or not?). Sometimes, they understand their context and appoint leaders (the creation of deacons in Acts 6). And sometimes, leadership simply went out and planted churches or carried out evangelism. Leadership was not stuck in the management of policy and procedure.

For those of you who are both Christian and serving in a board or council environment, the above may be new to you. Your organization has always touted Policy Governance as if it is the only responsible behaviour. But consider your board members. They got involved likely because they are passionate about the ministry and wanted to be highly engaged. So set them free to use their gifts! Diversify your board to include people with expertise in a variety of areas and let them go to work in a supervised way that supports the staff and ministry you are equipped by God to propel.

A board that can adapt and enable life-giving plans is the goal. That is the kind of board that multiplies things 30, 60 or 100 fold (Matt. 13:8, Mark 4:8 and Luke 8:8).

No joke.