Tip #42 What Are the 4 P's for Building Your Board Team?
The 4 P’s for building your board team are: Purpose, People, Plan, and Process.
Purpose: Be clear about and driven by purpose. Set your organization’s purpose. Identify what benefits or results your organization is to produce and for whom. Hold your CEO accountable for achieving organizational purpose. Be clear about your board’s purpose or role.
People: Recruit and develop a diverse team of excellent board members. Deal with problematic board member behavior proactively and effectively. Develop an accountable board culture. Develop effective board leaders.
Plan: Plan and organize for board team effectiveness. Structure the board and its relationship with the CEO to avoid unnecessary conflict and promote effectiveness. Secure adequate administrative support. Structure board and committee meetings for efficiency and effectiveness.
Process: Manage board group process for maximal board team effectiveness. Engage all board members in boardroom discussions and decision-making. Encourage generative (creative) thinking. Manage disagreements and conflicts proactively and constructively. Use the Kaplan 4-Player model for improving the contributions of individual board members and for enhancing the overall performance of your board team. (For information about the Kaplan 4-Player model, see my Tip #26: An Easy to Use Tool for Effective Boardroom Discussions. This Tip can be found at https://www.BoardsOnCourse.com/blog.)
In subsequent Tips for Effective Boards, we will focus on each of the 4 P’s.
I will be happy to customize a team-building workshop experience for your board that incorporates all 4 P’s or focuses exclusively on one or more of the 4 P’s. For a workshop focused on the 4th P: Process, a longer workshop session allows more time for group experiential learning exercises designed to facilitate personal insight and acquisition of practical knowledge of specific tools and techniques. If you would like more information, please respond to this email or contact me via jpbohley@gmail.com.
While the 4 P’s incorporate insights from the Policy Governance® system, the 4 P’s also draw from other governance writers and from the group dynamics and team-building literature. For more information about the Policy Governance® system, please go to https://www.BoardsOnCourse.com/policy-governance.