Governance as Leadership: Positioning Your Board for Strategic and Generative Governance

May 1, 2015

The Greater New Orleans Foundation Organizational Effectiveness Initiative (OE) and the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools partnered together on Governance as Leadership: Positioning Your Board for Strategic and Generative Governance workshop.

We live in a time of profound change. Faced with shrinking budgets, rapidly evolving community needs, a hostile political climate, and ever more intense public scrutiny, nonprofits are finding it’s not enough to simply update a mission statement or patch over a list of outdated goals in order to remain relevant. In order to meet the challenges of building long-term financial sustainability, weighing strategic restructuring options, planning for leadership succession, and more, boards need to think and act differently.

Some boards are already making the transition by applying the lessons of the book, Governance as Leadership. This leadership model challenges boards to engage in three modes of thinking and decision-making: fiduciary, strategic and generative. While all three are important, generative thinking is often the most difficult – but also critical to navigating the future successfully. Generative mode thinking can lay the groundwork for leaders to develop breakthrough strategies, assuring increased mission impact and sustainable growth for the future. This workshop will provide a practical introduction to generative thinking and offer concrete ways to apply this governance mode in your board. Participants will:

  • Gain knowledge of the Governance As Leadership framework with emphasis on generative mode thinking
  • Leave with a toolkit of activities, methods, and practices for incorporating generative thinking into the ongoing work of your board
  • Grasp the implications of strategic and generative thinking for the design and conduct of future board and committee meetings

Resources from Governance as Leadership: Positioning Your Board for Strategic and Generative Governance: