Dave’s Board Governance Journey

It’s impossible to spend four decades in the business world without being exposed to a governing Board. It’s also quite likely that one will be asked to serve on a Board at some point.

Such was my lot. Throughout my work experience, I supported and made presentations to the Boards of Storer Broadcasting, Eaton Corporation and ServiceMaster. I also worked closely with Board members of these organizations to learn how for-profit corporate boards work.

Eventually, in the 1990s, I was asked to serve on boards of several Christian ministries. They included publishing, a retirement center, a camp and a small mission funding group. By late 1999, I was also elected to the Board of a large mission sending agency.

The opportunities increased. In the past 25 years, I’ve served on 11 boards and have been president, secretary and treasurer of some of those boards. In addition, my ministry in rebranding and renaming put me in close contact with a number of boards of other Christian organizations. I was called upon to make presentations to them and consult with them on a variety of leadership, organization and communication issues.

Those experiences gave me a wealth of insight into how boards work. I witnessed a common thread:  when times were good and there was a strong operational leader in the organization, board work was perfunctory – mostly just “rubber-stamping” decisions made by management; but when difficulties arose, the Board would spend most of its time “second-guessing” the decisions of management. There was no consistency and board work rose and fell like the tide.

In 2003, one Board on which I served came to a crisis point. A critical decision needed to be made for the welfare of the organization. Two Board members were on opposing sides of the decision. A special meeting was called to hammer out the decision. After almost seven hours of discussion, the Board couldn’t decide what to do. The Board – and thus the organization – was in chaos. I submitted my resignation, as did the Executive Director of the organization.

That experience helped that particular Board – and me – to realize that there must be a better way of governance. So we started searching out people who could provide Board governance training. We quickly learned there were plenty of people who wanted to train us. But all had an ulterior motive. They really just wanted access to the Board to sell us some other service, like fund-raising or site planning.

We also began searching the Internet. When you put “board governance” into Google, you get more than 270 million results! There are thousands of excellent ideas and suggestions. There are tests you can take, lists of “Top 10 Most Important” things to do, and so on. But it still appeared to be still a guessing game. We had already tried scores of these ideas, only to have them quickly fall by the wayside because there was no system to tie them together and, therefore, no discipline required to make them work.

During this process, I began working with a Christian mission organization to help them rebrand and rename themselves. In a meeting with their senior management, the president mentioned that the Board was a “Policy Governance®” board (whatever that was). The Board had given management the “Ends” (results) they were to accomplish, but the “Means” were up to management. This was a new thought, because all the boards on which I served were involved in both “ends” and “means” – mostly the latter. I was intrigued.

As we continued the rebranding process and came up with a new name, the president asked if we should tell the Board what we were doing. “Of course,” I said. “You can’t do something that major and not tell the Board!”

Ten days later, I met with the Board. The Board chairman had already told the president that there was “no way” the Board would approve a name change on such short notice. But we forged ahead and made our presentation. After the presentation, the Board spent about 45 minutes asking questions and discussing our proposal. Then somebody said, “We think this is really important and it may have an effect on the results (Ends) we want to achieve. But as big as this decision is, it’s still just “means” – and we leave those decisions to the operational leadership. I think we need to agree with their decision and move on.”

I was astounded. Never in all my board experience had I seen a Board make a decision of that magnitude so easily. I knew I had to learn about Policy Governance. I went to the Board chairman – Dr. Richard Biery – and said, “Tell me how this decision could be made so quickly.”

Not only did Dr. Biery answer my question, but he patiently took me through a summary of the Policy Governance system. I learned that it had been invented by Dr. John Carver primarily for non-profit boards, and that it is the only board governance system that is complete enough and unique enough to be trademarked by the US Patent and Trademark Office.   I also found out that Dr. Biery – a medical doctor – had served on dozens of boards and had the same frustrating experiences as mine. When he discovered Policy Governance, he was so encouraged by it that he left his medical practice and started his own business called The BroadBaker Group to train boards in Policy Governance.

I brought all this news back to the Board on which I served. We started reading and learning more about Policy Governance. It took us almost a year, but we eventually made the decision to have Dick Biery train us to make the transition to a Policy Governance Board. And we’ve never looked back!

But the process for me didn’t stop there. Because I was serving on other Boards I believed could use Policy Governance to their advantage, I continued to learn. I read more, attended seminars and talked to more people. I wanted to see if I could discover a “down-side.” Were there Boards who had tried Policy Governance and had failed at it? Was Policy Governance really the only true Board governance system out there? What were the pitfalls? The weaknesses?

Sure enough. There were Boards that had failed at Policy Governance. But the more I delved into the reasons for failure, it became apparent that the problems didn’t lie with the Policy Governance system. Instead, it was the fault of the Board who thought they could change the system – for a variety of reasons. Many times, the Board tried shortcuts, determining that it really didn’t need to use the whole system. Sometimes they decided to save money by not getting proper training, understanding or support.

During the past 17 years, I’ve read hundreds of pages about Board governance and talked with dozens of people. So far, I haven’t found a single Policy Governance Board that has failed when they have correctly implemented the system.

But I have found dozens of small- and medium-sized ministry Boards who recognize the value of Policy Governance and want to implement it. They don’t have the resources to obtain the proper training and support. In the fall of 2009, one of these Boards suggested I become “certified” as a Policy Governance trainer so I could train them (and others) as part of my rebranding ministry. I contacted the Carver Governance organization to learn how to be certified. To my surprise, I learned they don’t offer any certification. Dr. Carver typically teaches people how to become trainers because those people want to be able to advertise that they are “Carver-trained.” That’s important for people who are making their living in this way. But that’s not my goal.

As I prayed and thought about this, I decided to go back to Dick Biery. I said to him, “Dick, there are lots of Christian ministries who need Policy Governance, but it will never happen because they can’t afford it. This is a market segment that you will never be able to serve because you can’t afford to reduce your fees to a level they can pay. But what if I could provide a level of training and support at a reduced rate and work under your auspices.”

After more prayer and discussion, Dick and I worked out a scenario to do just that. I work as an associate of The BroadBaker Group under Dick’s direction to train and assist smaller Christian ministries in understanding and implementing the Policy Governance system. Because I offer these services as a ministry, rather than a “business,” I can – with Dick’s approval – charge significantly less than the Carver-trained consultants.

In 2018, Dick and I took over Delta One Leadership Institute, a small educational non-profit corporation. Our work in Policy Governance, along with other subjects, is now being done through Delta One.

I’m still learning.  I have now been training and supporting boards for more than 10 years.  Dick and I are ready to serve you and your board.  For more information, read “How Can We Help You?


© 2024 David J. Baseler