The most successful boards I have seen are comprised of individuals that bring diverse experiences and perspectives for the benefit of those that they serve. They understand the collective skills required for the board and how the individuals each contribute to that collective strength. They are also aware of how those board skills evolve over time, both consciously through strategic initiatives and naturally through changing conditions in the broader operating environment.

There are a number of factors that enable diversity, with some obvious ones being gender and ethnicity, and some less obvious ones, such as diverse experience across industries and sectors. A challenge is balancing the need for diversity with the need to have a manageable number of directors. After all, there is a point where not every experience and perspective could be represented by appointing another Director!

A way I have found useful for boards to build and maintain balance and diversity is to look at a process that:

• articulates the skills needed to achieve identified strategic initiatives
• reflects on the current and future issues facing the organisation, and the skills required to address them effectively
• clearly articulates who the board is in service to, such as shareholders in a corporate board compared to members in a not for profit board
• decide on those skills that the board requires, as distinct from management, and prioritise which are required immediately compared to those needed in the longer term
• map existing skills against those identified to determine what, if any, gaps need to be addressed

Importantly, this is not a static process and requires ongoing attention and effort to ensure continued appropriateness in a constantly changing world. It is also an incredibly useful way of building a pool of suitable future Directors in a considered manner. I have come across some very talented individuals who are looking at joining boards or subcommittees. Knowing which board is best placed to leverage those skills is increasingly difficult if boards aren’t clear on what they are looking for now and in the future.

To find out more, come along to my ‘Building and maintaining a balanced board’ workshop, with details below.

When I first heard of the UN Global Goals I was amazed by the challenge of having the world commit to three things: End extreme poverty, Fight inequality & injustice and Fix climate change. Whilst completely aspirational, they are also achievable if we listen to the mantra of sign up, take action, tell everyone.

I agonised over which of the 17 goals I would take up as they are all so critical. I also knew that focusing my energy and attention on what mattered most to me would have greater impact than trying to do everything. I finally settled on Global Goal 4: Quality Education and Global Goal 5: Gender Equality.

It was encouraging to think of the ways I’m already seeking to promote some of the targets, such as by running sessions like ‘Build and Maintain a Diverse Board’ where I actively facilitate the creation of diversity in any type of board – corporate, not for profit, school and government.

Also, as Chair of the Board at the WA Deaf Society, we are looking at ways to enable improved and meaningful access to education and vocation opportunities for the Deaf community.

Having said that, I’m definitely not the most active person in promoting diversity and Deaf rights. There are fantastic people doing exceptional work, such as our Young Australian of the Year, Drisana Levitzke-Gray.

So I reflected on other impactful ways that I could help achieve the Global Goals. Inspired by both Daniel Raihani and Project Everyone, I wanted to gauge the level of awareness in the general community about the Global Goals following the ambitious target of telling 7 billion people in 7 days. I spent the day randomly asking people whether they had heard of them and was utterly shocked when of the 50 people I asked, only 2 said they knew of them!

That’s what triggered this blog; to raise awareness of these globally significant areas of focus. I urge others to choose one or two goals that are most meaningful to them and see what else they can contribute.

This is just one way (today) for me to sign up, take action, tell everyone. Please like or share this blog, or create your own, and help promote the Global Goals.

It was such an inspiring afternoon yesterday to be at the WA Australian on the Year awards ceremony. The finalists, and ultimately winners, were such passionate, courageous people that encapsulate what it means to be Australian by dedicating their energy and time to championing their cause.

However, one image stood out to me. When they called the winner of the Australian of the Year WA it was clearly an overwhelmingly exciting time for Anne Carey. As she arrived at the stage to accept her well deserved award, I loved the image of seeing her alongside our previous WA Australian of the Year, Lyn Beazley, and Her Excellency the Honourable Kerry Sanderson AO. That’s right, three women on stage together, each there for their contribution to society in different ways.

It’s a great achievement to see such capable women, especially on the week that our first female jockey won the Melbourne Cup too. What a week!

I have worked with many organisations over the past 15 years to help them build robust and resilient strategies, often in the face of rapidly changing and complex futures. For example, I have found the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) to be a complex government initiative with a high degree of uncertainty, making it challenging for not for profit organisations to prepare accordingly.

To start, I whole heartedly support the notion of enhancing the levels of service to people living with a disability. Having worked as a regulator I deeply appreciate and value transparency, accountability, certainty and competition amongst service providers.

The challenge with NDIS is balancing the need for rigour and transparency whilst still maintaining and celebrating the ‘heart’ in the NFP sector. The two need not be mutually exclusive but rather should work to complement each other.

Creating a resilient strategy will be critical for all disability service providers looking to remain sustainable in the new world.

However, a two day strategic planning workshop will not achieve this. Resilience and sustainability are not tasks that can be completed in a workshop but are rather built through ongoing focus and commitment.

I recently talked with a colleague about a highly successful mid-tier mining company that quadrupled its output over the past 3 years. A key reason for their success was that they have been focussed on strategy for that entire time and view it as an ongoing process, engaging the support of an independent strategic advisor to maintain focus and momentum. This is a great example of embracing strategy as a part of business rather than a one off event that creates a glossy one-pager at the end (and then is often filed away).

The value of strategic planning is often the conversations triggered and independently facilitated in a way to drive robust discussion before achieving alignment. These conversations aren’t just ‘what is our mission statement’ but include ‘are the recipients of our services satisfied and appropriately supported’ and ‘is the value we are adding to the sector growing or diminishing’ and need to be held throughout the year. Often, scheduling and holding these challenging conversations gets overlooked because of fire fighting, cost cutting or other immediate pressures.

With such rapidly changing factors impacting us constantly, creating a strategic plan in a 1 or 2 day workshop and expecting it to continue to be relevant and effective for years to come is not exactly what I would consider to be good business practice for any business, not just those in the disability services sector.

After all, it isn’t like anyone could expect to do a 2 day boot camp and then be fit and healthy for the remainder of the year.

A boot camp, like a strategic planning retreat, is a catalyst that triggers great momentum to build on and requires ongoing focus and commitment.

So why treat a strategic planning process any differently when it directly relates to the fitness and health of your organisation and needs the same level of ongoing focus and commitment?

Annette Perrin is a Director of Creational Consulting. She focuses on supporting people at all levels in an organisation, from boards to operational staff, through strategic planning processes. She brings an independent, informed and creative perspective to support the achievement of strategic goals in an engaging and focused manner.

I am often asked how to become a board member for a NFP organisation. It is heartening to see the intent of many experienced, capable people to ‘give something back’ by way of volunteering their skills and expertise. However, the days of well intentioned individuals donating their time in service of a worthy charity is fast being replaced with a highly competitive, demanding and complex world of NFP governance.

I recently wrote a post on how the NDIS is requiring more resilient and robust strategic planning. Equally, I feel that the NDIS is requiring a greater level of board performance and accountability as NFP service providers emulate their corporate counterparts. Yet there is a striking difference between the two. Most corporate boards pay their directors. Most NFPs don’t.

I will disclose upfront that I’m an unpaid director on several NFP boards and have recently supported board recruitment exercises, which is why this topic has been personally intriguing. For example, I pondered if those boards were recruiting paid directors, would I be getting a different response from candidates I have met?

By paying NFP board members, I believe that there is an increased expectation on their individual and collective performance placed on them by donors, members, staff and others as they more actively focus on outcomes achieved for the money they’re paid.

I also believe that there is the potential to improve the level of professionalism by remunerating directors compared to a holding a meeting of well intentioned individuals (which seems commonplace in some NFP boards).

Many NFPs complain about struggling to get their board members to actively engage and contribute their services outside attending board meetings every other month. Perhaps paying them might bring about a stronger sense of duty rather than accepting a lower priority ranking for their unpaid service? After all, many NFP board members have competing pressures from their paid (often senior executive) positions, families and other commitments.

That said, I know that there are a lot of studies that suggest paying directors attracts higher calibre individuals, whereas others conclude that there is negligible impact on overall performance. Pick your study and you can tell whatever story you want!

Given that, if you consider paying your directors to be worthwhile, then to me it comes down to three things:

1. Is your organisation of such size and complexity with high levels of regulation that it warrants an equally large contribution of time and effort to provide effective governance? If so, perhaps remunerating directors for their time and expertise may be judicious.
2. Do you have the capacity to pay without adversely impacting your operational position? If your balance sheet is already struggling year to year, don’t overburden it with remunerating directors!
3. Are your main revenue streams from services and grants? If so, remuneration may be a more likely option than a NFP that receives most of its income from donors and sponsors who may not take favourably to their donations being paid to directors and diverted away from direct service provision.

In every scenario I would suggest a deeply considered approach as this isn’t something to leap into!

If you are comfortable with the above three influencing factors supporting the exploration of remunerating directors on your NFP board, or you just want to discuss the concept with an experienced practitioner, then contact me to find out more.

Creational Consulting specialises in helping organisations and people create intentional outcomes in strategy, governance and organisational performance. With expertise spanning regulated, NFP, infrastructure, agricultural and health sectors we are perfectly positioned to provide high quality, balanced guidance.

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