Linking With Owners

Using Open Space Technology

The first assumption of Policy Governance is that a governing board is the trustee of the organization on behalf of some larger ownership to whom the board owes primary accountability. Defining the ownership marks the first step that turns the board's primary vision outward to that ownership and forward to the future. No longer is the board primarily looking down into the operations of the organization.

The board's ownership may be evident to some boards. An association's ownership is the membership. The residents of the district are an elected board's ownership. Most community-based nonprofits eventually determine that their ownership is made up of the residents of the communities they serve. A faith-based organization will look to those who share their faith in their geographic area as their owners.

Defining the ownership is a critical step for a board. The good news is that it is better to define the ownership incorrectly initially than not to define it at all. It is better because at least the board is thinking outside of the organizational box and is recognizing that they have a responsibility to some group of people other than staff.

Defining the ownership is critical because the ownership is the group that directs the board in the creation of the Ends of the organization. The Ends of the organization are policies that give the organization its reason for being, defined in terms of the way it will change the community. Whose lives does the organization exist to improve? The board must also define who are the organization's "customers".

How will those customers' lives change because the organization has achieved its intended results? The board must begin to think in terms of results rather than activities. And the results are always defined in terms of the effect on the customers' lives, not staff or operations.

So when the board has defined the ownership, the next step is to develop a plan to link with that ownership. The most valuable source of information on the myriad of ways to communicate with the ownership can be found in The Policy Governance Fieldbook. Common ways include focus groups, surveys, board-to-board meetings, open community meetings, and informal gatherings.

It is better for the board to develop some simple method of linkage than do nothing at all. A board could have each board member take responsibility to meet with community groups and ask three questions over a three month period, taking care to note the responses, and then share them with the board on a regular basis.

When boards contemplate how they will communicate with the ownership, it can be overwhelming. Even if the ownership is relatively small, it is intimidating to consider how significant communication can occur. Focus groups or statistically significant surveys give valuable information but can be expensive. Most nonprofits would have to be dependent on outside consultants to conduct the focus groups or the surveys

We are excited about the potential of Open Space Technology (OST), a large meeting management approach, as a board means to link with the ownership. At the very least, Open Space is a fast, cheap, and simple way to link with the ownership. At a deeper level, it enables people to experience a very different level of communication in which self-managed work groups are the norm, leadership is a constantly shared phenomenon, diversity becomes a resource to be used instead of a problem to be overcome, and personal empowerment is a shared experience. It is also fun.

We are interested in this approach because of its simplicity. Rather than rely on outside consultants, any organization can develop the expertise internally to facilitate the linkage with the ownership. It is a much cheaper form of linkage than many others.
Repetitive use of OST will change the community raising the consciousness for the issue, developing creative strategies to address the issue and Involving more people to transform the community.

To prepare for an OST meeting boards would define a theme that would excite those people who care about the organization's purpose. Examples include:

· Describe the ideal lives of people with disabilities in our community in ten years.
· What changes are critical for people in poverty in our community?
· What would a vibrant local economy look like?

Everyone who can be identified as being a valuable participant should receive individual invitations. An aggressive marketing of the Open Space meeting must occur. Personal phone calls might be part an effective strategy. Logistics must taken care of - a facility, the computers for the reporting, and food.

In Open Space, participants are seated in a circle or concentric circles, welcomed to the meeting and introduced to the meeting's theme and rules. It might begin with an introduction to the organization, its history, and the reason the board wants to hear from those in attendance. The board can promise to consider the results of the meeting carefully. If there are any givens, constraints limiting action that might be taken as a consequence of the meeting, they will be shared.

Then the participants are invited to identify any issue related to the theme for which they have some genuine passion and are willing to be the convener of a discussion. As a convener they do not have to be the expert on the issue. Their responsibility is to start the session, list all participants and see to it that a summary of the discussion is produced.

They come to the center of the circle, write their issue on a piece of paper, announce it to the group, and post the paper on the wall. When all the issues that anyone cares to identify have surfaced, the group is invited to go to the wall, sign up for the issues they care to deal with, and get to work. No matter what the group size, all this takes about an hour.

From that point on the group is self-managing. As the groups meet, reports of their activities are generated, and at the conclusion all the issues are prioritized. The "hot" issues are developed in further detail with concrete action as the goal.

At the end, all the important issues will have been discussed and a full record of the proceedings from the discussions will be in the hands of the participants. Priorities will have been established, related issues converged, and initial action steps identified. And the participants will have experienced a very different and self-empowering way of working that they can share with the community.

The board will receive the record of proceedings from each OST meeting. They do not have to participate in the meetings. We recommend that a debriefing meeting be scheduled with the board soon after the OST meeting so that the board can integrate the new information into their Ends deliberations. Boards with several communities in their service area might schedule OST meetings in each of them periodically.

OST is a simple methodology with profound results