Want a One-member Board?

Note: This is an updated version of a popular blog entry written nearly a decade ago.

How would you like it if your nonprofit had a one-member board?

If you're an executive director that is struggling with your board then this may be a dream come true. The same may be true if you're a frustrated member of a large, slow-moving and fractious board.

As it turns out, this isn't necessarily a fantasy. In some states all you need to legally incorporate as a nonprofit is just one board member. One!

Now then, I've never actually come across a one-person board. And I definitely don't think it's a good idea in practice. Given that a board's core purpose is to provide governance and appropriate oversight, one person just isn't going to cut it.

But that begs the question: how large should your board be?

One board of an association that I work with has twenty-five members. It works great and has extremely strong committees. But, managing the board requires a significant amount of staff time and the board is slow to make decisions.

What I typically recommend for small organizations is to create a board of five to seven members. Yes, only five-to-seven.

A board of this size:

• Is flexible and can respond rapidly.

• Maximizes strong board engagement and accountability.

• Simplifies board communication.

• Can focus on its oversight responsibilities and not get sidetracked into micromanaging the organization.

• Doesn’t bog the staff down in board management tasks.

But, you may be wondering, what about all of the other ways that a board can assist: fundraising, program assistance, marketing, etc.? That's why I also recommend the creation of an advisory council to complement the small board. In this structure the board of directors focuses on overall governance while the advisory council serves as a body of interested stakeholders that assist in all sorts of other ways.

(Note that I use the term advisory “council”, not advisory “board”. This helps to maintain a distinction between with the board of directors.)

There is a lot of variability in how to run an advisory council. Some organizations create a set of operating procedures, have a chair, and hold regular meetings. Other councils never meet at all and don’t have designated roles; they are just happy to have their name listed on marketing collateral and serve as needed. You can set your council up to meet your particular needs.

One organization that I’m familiar with — that has extremely strong programs and always exceeds its fundraising goals — has this board and council structure. It can work exceptionally well.

Done well, you get the best of both worlds in this structure: a fast-moving governance board and a deep set of stakeholders that can assist with fundraising, programs, and myriad of other organizational needs.

Here are links to two organizations that have this type of board of director and advisory council structure: Vida Verde Nature Education and the Inter-American Foundation.

Here is a complementary article where we go into advisory councils in more detail:

A Fresh Approach for Your Nonprofit Advisory Council

Hopefully these ideas and resources stimulate some ideas for how you and your board can create the best structure that works for your needs.

How big is your organization’s board?

Top 10 Quotes for Strengthening Your Organization

In my customer work I try to communicate powerful concepts in simple and memorable ways. One of my favorite tools to do this is using relevant and powerful quotes.

To that end I've collected scores of quotes during my career. Whittling that collection down to a "top 10" for this article was a tough exercise. Many excellent quotes didn't make the final list.

I ended up choosing this list because these are the quotes that I find most inspiring for myself and our customers. I hope you find them helpful.

Quotes on Good Communication

"All problems exist in the absence of a good conversation." Chris Barrow

When I consider all of the problems our customers face in their organizations, nearly every single one could have been prevented with good communication. I love this quote and use it all of the time to reinforce the importance of stronger communication.

"Seek first to understand, then be understood." Stephen Covey

This phrase is the fifth habit of Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Successful People.  If you're trying to strengthen the communication within your team or organization, consider using this line as a mantra. It’s gold.

Quotes on Planning

"Plans are worthless, but planning is everything." Dwight Eisenhower

Eisenhower’s quote is related to the battlefield where having an effective planning process literally means the difference between life or death. Even though planning at your organization may not have the same degree of urgency, the intent of this quote applies beautifully to nonprofit strategic planning.  We wouldn’t say that your plan is “worthless”, but we definitely emphasize the critical importance of building a planning culture. (Here is a good article that shares other military quotes that relate to strategic planning.)

"Execution IS the Strategy." Laura Stack

Execution IS the Strategy is the title of Stack's 2014 book on creating a more effective organization. Similar to Eisenhower’s quote, above, this highlights the power of integrating execution into your planning process. 

“There can be as much value in the blink of an eye as in months of rational analysis." From Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

In their search for the perfect plan, organizational leaders can spend months and months analyzing their organization. The crazy thing is, as Gladwell argues as a central theme of Blink, leaders can, instead, conduct a quick analysis that has as much accuracy as several months of navel gazing.

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." Leonardo da Vinci

Years ago when I started to promote the value of simple and practical strategic plans, I had a concern that people would consider them "dumbed-down" versions of larger plans. Then I came across this quote and my intuitive sense of the power of simplicity was validated. (Steve Jobs once said this about simplicity: “Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”)

Quotes on Sales and Fundraising

"I have more fun and enjoy more financial success when I stop trying to get what I want and start helping others get what they want."  From The One-minute Salesperson by Spencer Johnson, MD

I came across this quote over twenty years ago. At the time I viewed sales as a pushy and uncomfortable process. This quote helped me create an entirely new paradigm that sales and fundraising are, at their core, simply about serving others.  

"Intention matters more than technique."  Mahan Khalsa, Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play

This quote helps to solidify the prior quote. I always know that if my intention in the sales process is to serve -- even if my technique isn't perfect -- then everybody will be better off.

Organizational Culture and Teamwork

"Systems = Freedom"  Gary Stauble

I attribute this quote to my good friend, Gary Stauble. (He said he heard it from a colleague several years ago.) The obvious irony in the quote is that people often think of systems as confining and limiting freedom. But I've found the opposite to be true. When you and your organization put the right systems in place to strengthen organizational efficiency, then you gain more freedom.

“Not finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare.” Pat Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

If you've read my other blog articles then you may know that I'm a huge fan of Lencioni and his work at The Table Group. I'll often pull this quote out about the tremendous leverage provided by strong teamwork.

I hope these quotes resonate for you. If you have a quote that has inspired you and your work, please share it below. 

Death by Meeting

I've borrowed the title for this blog entry from one of my favorite business books, Death by Meeting by Pat Lencioni. The basic idea of the book is not that you'll die by meetings. Rather, you might die from awful meetings. 

As you know, awful meetings happen all the time. They take too long. They wander aimlessly. They don’t start or end on time. You’d pretty much rather be anywhere else. 

Well, it doesn't have to be that way. I know because we’ve lead hundreds of successful meetings each year, both in-person and virtually. In fact, we just facilitated a 4-hour Zoom meeting yesterday (yes, a four-hour Zoom meeting) that began on time, ended on time, led to a clear set of action items, and left all thirteen people in attendance raving about what a great use of time it was. Imagine people leaving a four-hour virtual meeting actually happy to have been in attendance!

Although we have many tricks to running effective meetings, there is a foundational tip that stands above all the rest: Communicate your meeting outcomes at the outset.

I know, this may not seem like much. But I promise you that it’s a game-changer.

You see, most people create meeting agendas that say we’re going to talk about this, discuss that, etc. As a result, the meeting just ends up being a bunch of talking. 

In contrast, what we do is establish and communicate a set of specific meeting outcomes for what we will accomplish by the end of the meeting. We transform a typical meeting agenda item to a specific meeting outcome. For example…

• Social media discussion ➡ Review and document revisions to our LinkedIn strategy

• Discuss organizational values ➡ Each meeting participant will have provided a specific example of how we are living an organizational value

• Review our strategic plan ➡ Progress on each of the goals in our strategic plan will have been measured and documented

Notice that each of the outcomes are much more specific when compared to the corresponding agenda item. And, with that specificity comes a significantly more focused conversation that saves time and increases relevance. It's amazing to watch my clients' meetings become more powerful and efficient when they simply employ this tip.

So, when you're preparing for your next meeting, ask yourself this question: "What, specifically, do we want to accomplish by the end of the meeting?" Then, document your responses as outcomes on your agenda, review them with your meeting participants at the beginning of the meeting, and drive the conversation toward those outcomes. Simple and powerful.

Of course, there are lots of other tips to strengthen meetings. But without a set of clearly defined outcomes, all of the other tips lose power.

Here are some resources to help you run more effective meetings:

• A sample meeting agenda that highlights outcomes

• Death by Meeting by Pat Lencioni

• Richard Lent's website and his book, Meeting for Results Tool Kit. Richard is a consultant that specializes in running effective meetings.

How are your organization’s meetings run?

One of the Best Strategic Plans Ever

A few years ago I came across an online critique of strategic planning titled “The Perils of Strategic Planning”.

One section, in particular, caught my attention. The author, James Hollan, wrote:

One of the very best plans I’ve ever seen in the nonprofit sector was just two pages. At the top of page one was a brief statement that basically said, “We are doing a very good job and we believe that these three things will make this organization even better. We believe they are three things we can accomplish next year.”

Below that were three goals for the coming year with the names of staff and board members in charge of accomplishing those goals, a very rough timeline for each, and a goal number for success. The second page listed two additional goals for the following year with staff and board members assigned to each with the understanding that they were “B” list items. It would be nice to accomplish them but not mandatory. The plan could actually have been collected on one page, but they used two for graphic clarity. This national organization had an annual operating budget of more than $10 million, and it consistently received very high satisfaction ratings from its members.

As a consultant that jumps up and down about creating simple, one-to-two page strategic plans, I absolutely loved this. I rapidly read the rest of the article, found Hollan’s email address and fired off a note to him. I had found a kindred spirit in the strategic planning world and I hoped to talk with him. (We ended up having a great phone call and we echoed each others’ philosophy on planning. He may even play a small editing role in my upcoming book on strategic planning.)

So, if you’d like to learn about the perils of strategic planning, Hollan’s article is a great read.

What’s the worst strategic plan you’ve ever seen?

Why I Quit An Executive Director Job (Or, The Importance of a Common Organizational Vision)

Many years ago I had a part-time job as the executive director of a small nonprofit. It was a great job in many ways. I loved our mission, the people we served, and the challenges we faced. Plus, at the time the job was a perfect complement to my other consulting work.

However, I had one main problem with the job: the board chair (also the founder) and I had dramatically different visions for the organization. He wanted us to be a somewhat regional program that used our nonprofit status primarily to qualify for funds. I, however, wanted us to become a strong nonprofit organization with a larger and larger national reach.

It's important to note that I liked and respected the chair. We were friends and worked well together in many ways. But we -- the two leaders of the organization -- simply had two starkly different visions. One vision wasn't necessarily better than the other.

Our difference of vision led to my departure.

Your vision directs your actions. Because my vision was to grow the organization, I was always trying to catalyze strategic planning, staff/board development, and other capacity building ventures. The board chair resisted my efforts because those activities didn't support his vision. The result is that we grew more and more frustrated with each other and, despite our attempts, we couldn't reconcile our clashing visions. So I gave my notice and left the position.

I've thought back on that situation many times and I always come to the same conclusion. Leaving was the right thing to do. The experience taught me some key lessons:

• The relationship between the executive director and the board chair is often the most critical one in a nonprofit. If that working relationship is fractured then it impacts everyone. It should be an organization's priority to get that relationship right.

• An aligned organizational vision is central to a leadership team's effectiveness. The healthiest organizations have leaders with common ideas for where the organization is going.

• Despite the best intentions, sometimes people have to move on from their jobs.

These lessons have impacted my strategic planning consulting work. I'm always interested in the ED-Chair dynamic and the vision of the leadership team. It's a red flag for me if I see problems there. It should be a red flag for you too. I hope my story and lessons learned are of help to you.    

Feel free to share your experience with ED-Board relationships.