Governing with Excellence

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Governing with Excellence

• An Introduction to
• Policy Governance

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• Power is given to you by others. It is not yours
  it is in trust with you and it is a great
  responsibility. Power is to be used for the
  benefit of those whose trustee you are
• (Gandhi)

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Very competent individuals

• can come together to form
• a very incompetent board!

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The Challenge for DEC Members

• Important and difficult role
• Carried out by elected volunteers
• Often in public
• Controlling complex organization in uncertain
  economic and social environment
• Little training or preparation

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Problems DECs encounter

• Time on trivial
• Short-term bias
• Reactive stance
• Reviewing, rehashing, redoing
• Leaky accountability
• Diffuse authority
• Confusion over role
• Confusing governance with management

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Where opportunity for leadership is
greatest, board process for leadership is
poorest!
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Policy governance ensures that DECs

• Cradle vision
• Explicitly address fundamental values
• Are outcome driven
• Force forward thinking
• Act proactively
• Separate large issues from small
• Clarify lines of responsibility
• Use board time efficiently

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With Policy Governance you govern with written
policies...

• You do not
• Make decisions about programs or personnel
• Decide operational issues
• Approve techniques or strategies
• Resolve routine, day to day problems

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Policy

• The shared value or perspective that underlies
  action-why you do what you do.

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Policy as a leadership tool

• You are what you believe
• Everything depends on what you value
• Policies make values concrete
• Policies provide leverage and efficiency
• Policy governance requires no special expertise
• Attention to policies is attention to
  fundamentals
• Policies encourage vision and inspiration

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The four types of Policies
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Ends Policy

• What is to be achieved
• What good?
• For whom?
• At what cost?

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Ends Policies can be

• Broad
• Students will graduate with the knowledge and
  skills necessary to enter and succeed in the
  higher education institution or in the career of
  their choice

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Or

• Specific
• Students will meet or exceed established
  standards in core academic areas

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Keep ends and means separate

• DECs are concerned with ends
• Staff are concerned with means
• For DECs the issue of why is important-not how!
• Ends are where the real power of DECs is most
  effectively realized

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Means

• Practices
• Methods
• Activities
• Programs
• Curricula

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Evaluating Ends

• The test of effectiveness is whether the ends are
  met
• Dont discuss evaluation before you have
  completed deciding what you want to accomplish
• A crude measure of the right thing is better than
  a reliable measure of the wrong thing
• Superintendents are responsible for demonstrating
  they have met the ends

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Executive Limitation

• Explicit policy statements of what the CEO is not
  permitted to do in the day to day operations of
  the organization

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Common Executive Limitation Policy Topics

• Treatment of students
• Treatment of staff
• Staff evaluation
• Financial planning/budgeting
• Asset protection
• Communication and counsel to the DEC

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Board Process

• How the DEC will operate
• The DEC is one entity-it is not a collection of
  individuals!

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Common process topics

• How will the DEC maintain linkage with those it
  represents?
• How will the DEC evaluate its own performance?
• What is the role of the chair?
• Board members code of conduct
• How is the agenda formulated?

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Council-Superintendent Relationship

• Superintendent is the DECs only employee
• How the DEC and the Superintendent will cooperate
• Superintendent reports only to full board
• DEC directs Superintendent only!

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Superintendent Job Description

• Simple Achieve ends and dont violate the
  Executive Limitations Policies!
• Superintendent is evaluated on these two
  criteria-if it isnt in policy it cannot be used
  to evaluate
• Evaluation is a process not an event

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Quick Rules for Policy Making

• Start with your values at the broadest and then
  move to be more specific
• Policies must be written and accessible
• They must be current
• Brevity is the unheralded secret of excellence
• Debate leads to good policy
• Board speaks with one voice

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Phases of Policy Development

• Phase 1 Issue identification
• Round table discussion
• Strategic planning
• Expression of opinions

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Phase 2 Education and Consultation

• Data collection-what do we need to know?
• Consultation-who do we need to talk to?

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Phase 3Developing Ends

• Identify major policy parameters
• Identify indicators for monitoring
• Identify performance standards
• Write the policy-best done by staff or small
  group

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Phase 4Approval

• Always approved at regular meeting
• By majority vote
• Speak with one voice after vote

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Phase 5Policy Review and Monitoring

• Regular
• Scheduled
• Current

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Tips for Writing Ends Policy

• Describe what will be different in the lives of
  those effected
• Always stated in terms of results or benefits
• Beware of verbs
• Define the end clearly
• State the cost
• Worry about measurement after the result is
  defined

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Why Policy Governance?

• Focuses attention on results
• Frees Superintendent to do her job
• Provides clarity of role
• Increases accountability
• Ensures leadership and vision
• Rise above the trivial
• Lead not fix things