Board members and management committees of nonprofits are in a unique position to influence the performance of their organisation and the sector.
Over the weekend ACPNS researcher Associate Professor Gavin Nicholson presented to a packed house at the annual Better Boards conference in Melbourne.
The Better Boards Conference is the premier governance and leadership conference for leaders of Australasia’s nonprofit organisations. This year’s theme was Game-Changing Moves… Governing for Maximum Impact. Presentations focused on board and leadership discussions on four key areas: Strategy, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Technology. Find out more about the Better Boards Conference
Gavin outlined the basis for thinking differently in the boardroom. The presentation was packed with practical tips on how boards can implement changes in their (1) mental models; (2) accountability systems; (3) governance routines and (4) knowledge bases. He emphasised the paradoxical nature of many aspects of the board’s work and provided a series of checklists to guide boards seeking to think differently.
The presentation was based on an almagum of case analysis. For instance, since 2002 ACPNS has been providing nonprofit boards with a collection of governance resources. The Developing Your Board (DYB) project, aims to assist nonprofit boards to become reflexive. Reflexive boards continually learn to adapt to changes in their environment and to manage the competing demands they face. Importantly for the life of the organisation, they are then able to pass these skills on to incoming board members. In this way long-term sustainability can be achieved. The presentation also included summaries of research by Jackie Bettington and Natalie Elms.
To find out how your nonprofit can benefit from governance resources and publications produced by ACPNS go to the Developing Your Board wiki.
