Ineffective Boards
Scenario: An organization that has a board that is too involved in day-to-day operations and interfering with the staff's ability to carry out their duties.
CP Solution: Facilitated Board Centering Retreats
Sometimes an executive will call a consultant for help with an overly-involved board. It's typical that as they micromanage daily operations, they’re ignoring their primary duties, including strategic oversight of the organization and more importantly fund-raising, which is the primary purpose of the board.
Conflicts between management and subordinates or mid managers and line level staff are much different than conflicts between management and board. That’s because the staff are paid and the board members are volunteers. A volunteer has a whole other compensation basis or reason for being there other than being paid. They have internal reasons for wanting to volunteer with an organization, and this is where the problem starts. The reasons and motivations for being involved with the organization can be unconscious. For example, with a disease related organization, many people volunteer that have had some direct experience with that disease either in themselves or and family members. That emotional tie to that particular nonprofit can be very powerful terms of their level of commitment. But if that board member hasn't completely addressed all the reasons why they're doing and if they haven't wrestled with some of the emotional factors that they're bringing in with them, it can have negative effects.