Governance

Four Types of Problem Solvers – Who Is On Your Board?

All the members of your board might agree on the social change you want to see occur as the result of your work. But the odds are that each person will have a drastically different idea of how to achieve that change, and what the metrics of success should be along the way. These differences can lead to argument and disjuncture. However, they come down to how people fundamentally approach and solve problems.

Board Member Remuneration Report 2016

The Better Boards NFP Board Member Remuneration Report 2016 explores the make up of Australasian not-for-profit boards and their remuneration practices. The report provides a unique snapshot of the dynamics of Australasian not-for-profit boards and provides insights to help you understand the changes in board structures and remuneration practices. Through this 40 page report Better Boards aims to provide valuable insight to not-for-profit organisations, boards, board members and others in the not-for-profit sector on the topics of board remuneration and structure.

Board Fundraising Check-Up

Not-for-profit boards are under increasing pressure from the press and regulators to ensure the propriety of their fundraising practices. The Shane Warne and E.J. Whitton Foundations are simply two of the latest examples where boards are asked to explain their approach to raising and distributing funding. If you have been thinking about reviewing your own fundraising practices, we have put together a series of eight points to guide your review.

Tech in the Boardroom: Beyond the Board Portal

Discussion of boardroom technology has almost exclusively been focused on board portals. This makes sense as board portals have probably had one of the most significant impacts on boards of any widely available technology to date. However, we are now beginning to see the consumerisation of a wide range of far more complex and advanced technologies that have the potential to make a significant impact on the boardroom and the way boards operate.

Gavin Nicholson on Handling Complexity in Board Decision Making

In this video, on handling complexity in board decision-making Gavin Nicholson – Associate Professor at the QUT Business School – examines how decision-making processes can help to tackle significant complexity in matters considered by the board. Transcript This is a very abstracted kind of decision that I’ve got here. But I really wanted to make the point that you can have all the information in the group and still make a bad decision, depending upon how you make the decision, the actual process.

Reshaping the Board’s Role in Organisational Culture

Culture is a crucial driver of any organisation’s success and a critical lever in its performance. It shapes and influences an organisation’s internal environment, as well as its interactions with and success in the external environment. In an organisation, culture is the way people behave, what they believe, and the values they hold – on the whole generally without thinking about any of it. These behaviours, beliefs and values are passed through the organisation via communication and imitation, from one employee, volunteer or even director to the next.

Gavin Nicholson on Why Processes Really Matter

In this video, Gavin Nicholson – Associate Professor at the QUT Business School – examines how testing underlying assumptions and instituting better processes can subvert poor decision-making. Transcript This is a very abstracted kind of decision that I’ve got here, but I really wanted to make the point that you can have all the information in the group and still make a bad decision, depending upon how you make the decision, the actual process.

A New Revolution: Breaking Down the Governance Bastille?

Do you ever wonder why everyone keeps telling us in NFP governance, that ‘one size doesn’t fit all’ and then proceeds to tell us precisely what ‘best practice’ dictates about how we must govern? The body of ‘best practice’ lore usually comes from asking questions about how things are done in comparable organisations. For a start, the answers are too often based on looking at how things are done in non-comparable large listed corporations.

Increasing Board Opportunities for Young Women

Closing the leadership gap for young women is a formidable challenge, however there is no excuse for accepting the status quo. There is compelling evidence to suggest that organisations perform better when women are well represented at senior levels and in the boardroom. This is referred to as the business case for gender diversity. Women perform better academically and are now graduating from tertiary institutions at higher rates than men. This has created a pool of well-educated, talented and ambitious women who are valuable resources for business and organisations.

The Gardener or the Lawyer? Who to Call First When Making Governance Change in NFPs

Not-for-profit governance is awash with change in Australia. Some organisations are moving from being incorporated associations under state law to Companies Limited by Guarantee under the Commonwealth’s Corporations Act. Others are replacing representative boards with skills-based boards. And still others are investigating ways of replacing old federated structures with new national ones. As any lawyer can explain, these changes are all relatively easy to make from a structural point of view.