Redefining Library Boards for Dynamic Communities

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Redefining Library Boards for Dynamic Communities

• Dr. Ken Haycock
• January, 2004

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Basic Factors in Effectiveness

• Determine Mission and Purpose
• Select/Support/
• Evaluate the CEO
• Articulate Roles and Relationships
• Plan Strategically/ Allocate Resources

• Monitor and Evaluate/Accountability
• Maintain Legal and Ethical Integrity
• Public Standing and Credibility
• Recruit Aggressively/
• Assess Performance

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Determine Mission and Purpose

• What business are we in?
• How do we measure success?
• Outputs vs. outcomes

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Select/Support/Evaluate the CEO

• Position profile
• Community profile
• Knowledge skills attributes
• Succession management
• Performance measures
• Current issues

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Roles and Relationships

• Board/Ground Rules
• Board/Mayor/Council/
• Municipal Manager
• Board/Community/Power Bases
• Board/CEO
• Board/CEO/Community/Power Bases
• Board/CEO/Staff/Community
• CEO/Municipal Manager/Executive

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Conflict (Who? Us? Not!)
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Plan StrategicallyAllocate Resources

• Preferred Futures (roles)
• Process/Outcomes
• Walk the Talk The Agenda
• (dont major in the minors)
• Who Drives the Agenda?
• Consent/Information Decision Exploration
• Delegations? Representation? Liaison?

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Plan Strategically Priority?

• This project is so important that we cannot allow
  things that are more important to interfere with
  it!
• Doing the same things twice as hard will not lead
  to different results.
• How will the world be different tomorrow as a
  result of what we do here today?
• If we dont know where were going
• any road will take us there

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Monitor and Evaluate

• Effect of Organizational Culture
• Goals
• S.M.A.R.T. Objectives
• Evidence-based Decision-making
• What? Why? Who? When? How?
• 5 Cut What goes and why?
• Monitor and Adjust Accountability

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Enhance Public Standing

• Community events (what is political?)
• Community information
• Role counterparts
• Profile of Director/CEO
• Profile of Chair

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Maintain Integrity

• Legal Effect of legislation
• Ethical Effect of decision-making
• Financial Effect of priorities

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Recruit/Assess Performance

• Succession Management for the Board
• Older Readers or Community Leaders?
• Trustee or Board Development?
• Goal-driven or Reward-driven?
• Improve the knowledge base
• Governance Committee?
• Sustainability/Audit Committee?

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Board Performance

• Improved education
• Improved relations
• Improved strategic development
• annual work plans
• Improved monitoring, tracking, evaluation of
  programs and services
• (not personnel)

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Clichés?

• Improvement is not mandatory
• but then neither is survival.Deming
• Anything worth doing well
• is worth doing slowly.West
• Rowing is the only activity where you can sit on
  your backside, look backwards, and still make
  progress
• How many Board members does it take to change the
  Board? Only one, but the Board has to want to
  change

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The Choice Is Yours

• What kind of Board?
• What kind of relationships?
• What kind of impact?
• What kind of difference?

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Basic Factors in Effectiveness

• Determine Mission and Purpose
• Select/Support/
• Evaluate the CEO
• Articulate Roles and Relationships
• Plan Strategically/ Allocate Resources

• Monitor and Evaluate/Accountability
• Maintain Legal and Ethical Integrity
• Public Standing and Credibility
• Recruit Aggressively/
• Assess Performance

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New Designs for Effectiveness

• Make decisions based on evidence rather than
  opinion
• Create a culture of trust for staff with common
  agreement on what will constitute success
• Develop nimble infrastructure with systems that
  can respond efficiently and effectively

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Role of Evidence

• Transform information into knowledge
• Staffs role will increase in importance
• Concise communication based on evidence
• Maintain internal/external scanning
• Cultivate culture of strategic thinking
• Tolerance for ambiguity/uncertainty
• Expect leaders to deliver more from expanded
  knowledge bases

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Implications

• Outcomes desired vs. activities required
• Whats next vs. whats done
• Use evidence vs. collect evidence
• Consider capacity, capability, position
• Outcomes vs. methods

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Questions for Decisions

• Needs, wants, expectations of stakeholders? and
  shareholders?
• Capacity and position of library? Niche
• Realities, dynamics of community?
• Ethical implications for choices?

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Role of Trust

• Trusting environment creates enjoyable culture
• Governance means balance (distinction between
  oversight and supervision)
• Relationship between trust and nimbleness

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Implications

• Necessary knowledge
• Well-defined roles
• (not command and control)
• Strategy and direction-setting vs. implementation
  and detail
• Open flow of information (director)
• Opinions of community leaders (solicit)
• Value-added dimensions to community

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Nimbleness requires

• Tolerate risk
• Parameters with wide boundaries
• New technologies to aid work
• Right people with right expertise in the right
  seats
• Experiment with new methods
• Organize for value and benefits not
• love all, serve all
• Define unique niche and exploit opportunities
  that fit

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Strategies

• Knowledge-based governance leads to dialogue
  around critical issues
• Direct communication with customers and
  stakeholders
• Strong core values
• Clear focus

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Newer Models

• Alter process as well as structures
• Board focuses on value to clients and ensuring it
  is delivered
• Three priorities direction-setting operation
  oversight organization's culture
• Expertise and honesty more important
• Knowledge-based model vs. debate ideas of others
• Conscious choices about what to be accomplished
  and how Board will lead

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Building on Foundations

• We will focus on adding value to our communitys
  development by playing a lead role in these
  areas

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Resources You Can Use

• Trustee Associations
• The Ontario Library Trustees Handbook A
  Workbook for Library Boards (part of the OLTA
  Trustees Tool Kit)
• Alberta Library Trustees Association Resource
  Centre (well-organized web site with many links)
• National Center for Nonprofit Boards
• Ten basic responsibilities for nonprofit boards
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Institute of Government
• Ground rules for effective groups

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Resources You Can Use

• The Will to Govern Well
• Knowledge, Trust and Nimbleness The Will to
  Govern Well. Glenn Tecker, Jean Frankel and Paul
  Meyer. American Society of Association Executives
  Foundation, 2002. 236 pp.
• Writers/Consultants John Carver, Doug Eadie,
  Ken Haycock, Randee Loucks, Glenn Tecker

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To your success

• No time to ask your question?
• Concerned about privacy?
• Feel free to contact me at any time
• Dr. Ken Haycock
• voice 604.925.0266
• ken_at_kenhaycock.com
• more about me
• www.kenhaycock.org