OVERVIEW

The board of a nonprofit organization can be among its greatest assets. Yet as many senior executives know from experience, boards often fall short. The press of short-term issues, troubling group dynamics, and the ambivalence of even the best executives (who may worry that a more engaged board will be a more troublesome board) — all can interfere with a board’s capacity to engage in meaningful and consequential governance.  But with the support of conceptual frameworks that clarify their challenges and practical skills that aid them in responding, nonprofit executives can exercise leadership that results in better, more engaged boards.

Nonprofit Governance: Mobilizing Your Board is an online program designed specifically for executives in nonprofit and non-governmental organizations who want to tap into the full array of talent and energy within their boards.  Organized around a conceptual framework for overcoming the “micro-governing” that so often leads to low-value, high-maintenance boards, the program will help participants understand how both boards and executives can reframe their work to support more effective and consequential governance.

Building on this conceptual reframing of governance, participants will explore practical strategies and techniques – related to executive leadership styles, board-staff relations, and boardroom dynamics – for improving their organizations’ governance.   The program includes diagnostic and interactive exercises for improving board performance in three situations: in the work of routine board meetings, at intervals when the board pauses to reflect on mission or strategy, and in the sensitive work of managing board-staff relations. Throughout the course, special emphasis will be given to the distinctive challenges of senior executives in helping their boards perform better, including the ambivalence of executives themselves, who often want greater board engagement but worry about creating intrusive boards that undermine their leadership.

The program represents a unique online learning opportunity for nonprofit and non-governmental organization leaders to interact with colleagues from around the world as well as governance researcher William Ryan of the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard Kennedy School. 

Mobilizing Your Board is intended for both executives who report directly to a board and other senior executives who deal frequently with boards of directors. This program is not targeted to board members.

Mobilizing Your Board is designed to reach an audience of nonprofit and NGO leaders from around the world, who, given the costs and distances, are not able to attend residential Executive Education programs offered by Harvard Kennedy School.

The Mobilizing Your Board program is comprised of four topics, based in part on the highly regarded book, Governance as Leadership: Reframing the Work of Nonprofit Boards, co-authored by William Ryan.

• Key Concepts of Governance as Leadership  
• Identifying and Responding to Practice Challenges
• Simulation: Case Study of a Difficult Board Situation
• The Challenge for Executive Leaders

Each topic is covered in a two-week module that combines readings, online discussion, videos, and a workbook exercise – allowing participants to apply the information learned in each module directly to their organization.