Tip #87 Should Boards Be Concerned about Unintended Impacts?

December 1, 2022  |  tips for effective boards

Boards should be concerned about their organizations producing intended impacts relating to their board-determined organizational purpose. But what about other impacts that are perhaps mostly unintended?

 

Ethically-sensitive boards make special efforts to expand their awareness to include possible unintended negative impacts and to address these.

 

Such boards can periodically scan their universe of potential impacts to identify possible negative impacts. Possibilities such as the following can be considered:

 

1.       Apart from intended positive impacts on clients, customers, and other intended beneficiaries of our organization, do our products or services produce any unintended negative impacts on them? Perhaps feedback from them can be helpful here. Do organizational financial goals ever compromise intended impacts or produce unintended negative impacts on clients, customers, and other intended beneficiaries?

2.       Can we identify any unintended negative impacts on our employees? Perhaps feedback can be helpful here as well. Does our organizational culture create undue stresses for employees or particular subgroups of employees? Are there unintended organizational barriers to success for particular subgroups of employees? Are there unsafe or harmful elements in our physical work setting? Does our organization’s leadership style compromise employee wellness and development? (Do our organizational leaders embrace a servant-leadership mindset of serving and being concerned about those they lead?)

3.       Does our organization produce products or byproducts that may be harmful to our social and/or physical environment? Does our organization have any negative impacts on other organizations or groups in our community or in our broader society?

4.       Etc.

 

This topic reminds me of a tenet of servant-leadership. Servant-leaders or servant-led organizations are concerned about how they impact individuals, groups, and organizations. They strive to produce positive impacts whenever possible in their interactions with others or to at least avoid producing any harmful impacts on others. 

 

So, my suggestion to boards is that they regularly broaden their focus beyond concerns about intended impacts to consider the possibility of unintended impacts and to strive to address any unintended negative impacts they may become aware of.

 

Policy Governance® boards incorporate their ethical and risk governance concerns into Executive Limitations policies that set the boundaries within which their organizations are required to operate. As such boards become aware of potential unintended negative impacts or actual unintended negative impacts being produced by their organizations, they can incorporate into their Executive Limitations policies prohibited activities and situations relative to such negative impacts. 

 

The Policy Governance® model provides a comprehensive design for efficient impactful board operations. To learn more about the Policy Governance® model, please click https://www.BoardsOnCourse.com/policy-governance.