Not leaving the idea or learning at just a corridor conversation: Takeaways from the 2023 Better Boards Conference
In the last week of May, I had the pleasure of getting away with my fellow Ensemble Co-Founder, Felicity Green to the Better Boards conference in Brisbane. As well as being a dedicated part of Felicity’s cheer squad, I wanted to recognise and acknowledge the great line up of sector voices and the discussions they prompted and provoked throughout the two days.
All too often some of the best conversations and learnings get left in the corridors of the conference venue. Not wanted this to happen, I thought I would capture some of the things we took from it all…
1. Charities are trusted and respected within the community, but broader public perception still sees charities as less effective in delivering stakeholder value against national benchmark.
A presentation by Samuel Wilson from the Australian Leadership Index (ALI) provided rich context about how and where charities and other NFPs sit in terms of perception across integrity, contribution, competent and leadership. While these numbers are overwhelmingly positive, I found value in looking into where scores dipped or were relatively lower and what this might mean for different NFPs. While ALI data provides a collective perception from a subset of charities, the insights it raises are important. In particular, I found it intriguing as to why perceived ‘stakeholder value’ is lower than the national benchmark when so many other indicators were higher. This provides the opportunity to raise key questions that Board members and NFP Leaders should be asking. This is not just about having a fantastic vision and purpose in your strategy but being clear on your value proposition. This means asking “what problem do we exist to solve? Who for? And, critically, why us?”. This is about understanding value you provide in the context of the problems or opportunities your stakeholders are looking to solve.
2. Collective strategy is too often perceived as too hard. The reality is there is a whole spectrum of approaches and if you never ask the question or discuss the opportunity, you miss out on the chance to think differently and the potential to make bigger shifts.
Felicity’s presentation on collective strategy raised a lot of curious murmurs and follow-up conversation, in particular that collective strategies are often overlooked because of the perceived complexity, the fear of sharing to much information or the distraction of broader sector thinking. In practice, collective work lives on a spectrum, it doesn’t have to mean intertwining everything or moving to new models like collective impact. It could start through engaging others in the sector on your strategy discussions, could be a joint workshop. This work provides so much opportunity to think beyond the boundaries of the single organisation, to open-up or strengthen partnerships and to demonstrate potential economies in addressing areas of shared purpose.
3. Everything comes back to purpose. We should always be asking whether we are the right organisation to deliver services, are we adding value?
Phil Preston’s closing plenary session at the end of Day 1 was a useful reminder that purpose is critical to informing and guiding strategy. From our own experience, we agree and too often see the process of purpose statements being a word-smithing exercise. In fact, it should be about alignment. Making sure that the purpose is what you are effectively measuring against, that the organisation is not just making decisions to survive but to pursue sustainability with the lens of purpose, even when the difficult discussions arise around chasing different funding. The purpose is a way of framing value, of aligning to strategy and helping to inform the decisions in the short, medium, and long-term.
4. Diversity in our Boards is a must have, not a nice to have.
A first day morning panel discussion on sector trends, industry responses raised the paradigm of Board diversity. Not a paradigm as to whether it was important but in the challenge faced by so many organisations in delivering on it. Today, there is continued and ever-growing recognition for the need of diversity on Boards, and while there is great focus on gender equity, which is pivotal, stopping here is wrong and should be much broader. The fantastic Dr Vanda Fortunato, highlighted that focussing on one element of diversity, such as gender is not enough and that the discussion should be on how we get more diversity around the Board table. It, ultimately, should not be a debate either, diversity provides the richness NFP Boards need to inform better decisions, to understand the perspectives, especially as so many NFPs support those facing the greatest barriers or disadvantage in our communities are from diverse backgrounds. There will always be challenges, but the expectation should be set that Boards have a responsibility to address diversity and not just leave it at a conversation and action that it is too hard.
5. Global megatrends, such as emerging technology, are the window for the future, they should be shaping the discussions for today.
Dr Stefan Hajkowicz brought to life CSIRO global megatrends, highlighting that while highly relevant for everyone the issues both felt and close to home and far away at the same time. The perfect example was AI, as illustrated by Professor Marek Kowalkiewics, and the way it is changing the way our world works. We see it every day on online order forms or in first interactions with institutions, but it is deeper than that. AI is the potential workforce of the future, if not already. It feels sci-fi and distant, but in practice it is here already. This raises important questions for how organisations, big or small embrace it, and make sure we are learning. The notion of ‘motorbike sidecar’ was raised in the discussion and provide powerful imagery. It represents that we don’t always have to put emerging ideas and innovations in the driving seat. It can be seen as a ‘sidecar’ where the organisation can run pilots, test and evaluate. What works can be embedded and what does not can be let go. Organisations don’t have to always get intimidated by doing it all, but by embracing this idea of smaller try, test and learn principle. This isn’t just related to AI, but broader technology, new practice, and strategic thinking.
6. Boards need to embrace the breadth of what is going on, making sure the technical questions are not forgotten.
Directors have fiduciary responsibility for the organisation. It is not enough to just rely on the idea that the Executive are across everything, nor is it the best use of your value to be in the operational minutiae. The legal minds presenting at the conference highlighted the importance of risk and the many issues that NFPs need to be across, whether it is the organisations understanding and reasonable action to protect staff against sexual harassment, the standards and safeguards for privacy or broader issues of conflict of interest. The points raised by Jonathan Teh, Ben Tallboys, Catherine Nufer-Bar or Vera Vivesic all highlight the need for Boards to have these areas on the agenda and at appropriate times that Boards are asking the right questions and are clear on how the organisation is acting in the best interests of its staff, beneficiaries, funders, and itself.
These learnings are just some of what I took away from the speakers and corridor conversations. It has never been a more important time for everyone in the social sector to make sure these ideas, learnings are not just left there and are brought to life at the Board table and in leadership discussions.