© 2010 Bates Wells & Braithwaite London LLP
1) When failure is success turned inside out
4) Why your organisation needs vision
When failure is success turned inside out (by Tesse Akpeki)
Tesse Akpeki shows how failure forums can be a novel way to channel success.
Learning from failures is challenging and an extremely useful discipline. Understandably, when failure becomes the focus for reflection, learning can be difficult. Failure can puncture deeply held beliefs about what works and what does not. Some organisations may see that admitting failure dents their reputation and ignore weaknesses in the hope they will go away. Disappointing results are not addressed early, creating a vicious cycle which spirals down. The significance of poor results grows and it becomes more and more difficult to bring them into the light. There is another way of dealing with these difficult situations. Decisions that have led to worse than expected results can be disclosed, and the decisions and actions can be learned from and adjusted accordingly.
Sadly, there can be a tendency to “fix” a failure by tossing out the “failed” approach and replacing it with another. This is a dangerous approach as it can be the classic situation where the baby is thrown out with the bathwater. An alternative approach is to explore the reason for the failure. It may not be the approach, but the execution of it that lead to the result. Taking this on board can be a vital lesson for the organisation to learn. The answer? Creating an environment where the board, staff and volunteers can reflect on what it was about the situation that made one approach work better than another, or what else might have contributed to the failure, and forming a hypothesis about which approaches work in which situations – to build the organisational tool box.
Some organisations have utilised the approach of Before Action Reviews (BAR) and After Action Reviews (AAR). These are a simple discipline which may speed up the learning cycle. BARs help individuals involved to remind themselves before walking into action about the intended short-and longer-term outcomes and what their thinking is about what it will take to get there. AARs help them briefly but deliberately to reflect just after an activity about whether their thinking and actions moved them toward their intended outcomes and what they intend to sustain or improve through the next set of actions.
A powerful way to learn from either a success or a failure is to compare it with other similar situations to discover more robust insights. Using comparisons relieves the pressure on learning from a single painful failure. Why did this approach work her and not there? Where there similar reasons why these two services failed? Why did this approach work here and not there? Did these two reasons fail or succeed for different reasons? If so, what should we really learn from them? What patterns are emerging from the reflective practice? Another interesting development is holding “failure forums”. These are meetings to talk explicitly about the failures and what has been learned from them. The forums create safety in numbers. If everyone else is expected to talk about their failures, it becomes easier to share ones own. In the process, participants can use comparison to strengthen their insights about their own failures. If done in a safe, trusting environment where decisions and actions can be reflected on openly, reflection can help uncover deeper insights that strengthen rather than weaken the organisation.
Read the full version on www.civilsociety.co.uk/governance/blogs
Governing for Success (by Tesse Akpeki)
As part of the Walker Review into corporate governance, The Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA) published a report, 'Boardroom Behaviours' The results of the study demonstrate the importance of constructing the right architecture for the governance structure, and stresses that the organisational and institutional aspects of governance cannot be expected to operate efficiently in the absence of a commitment to appropriate standards of boardroom behaviour. This, ICSA says will in turn strengthen the process and quality of decision making in the board room, 'as the absence of guidance on appropriate boardroom behaviours represents a structural weakness in the current system'. Key factors to shape behaviours are outlined as follows:
While 'Boardroom behaviours' focuses mainly on corporate board practice, there are interesting parallels with the third sector that may usefully be explored.
Read the full version on www.charteredsecretary.net.
Clear mission (by Tesse Akpeki)
In my experience many voluntary and community organisations need to have greater clarity about why they do what they do. The organisation needs to know its purpose. What does the organisation want to be identified with? ~What will others remembered the organisation for?
The mission is a practical way of putting the Vision into action. It materialises in projects that can hit the ground, making the dream a reality. To crystallise this, organisations develop a mission statement, which expresses the heart of the organisation, the pulse that indicates that the organisation is alive, well and current. A good mission statement accurately explains what the hopes are for the future, the essential nature of the organisation, its values and its work.
Does your mission statement answer the following questions
• Its purpose: what needs does it seeks to address?
• Its business: what it is doing to address these needs?
• Its values: what are the principles or beliefs that guide its work?
These do not have to be expressed in a lengthy manner. Peter F Drucker ( a well known leadership expert) says that the mission should fit on a T-Shirt!
If you wonder how your organisation gets involved in activities that seem unrelated to its stated purpose, it may be time to revisit the mission. Has your organisation become involved in initiatives that may not have happened if funding were not available? This may be an indication of mission drift.
Your underlying beliefs and values should be the basis for policymaking, planning and decision making.
So you've got your mission statement, in fact you have had it for a few years What next? It is crucial to assess and revisit your mission statement to ensure that it is still relevant, alive and kicking. You may find it helpful to engage in a discussion taking into consideration the current challenges and opportunities your organisation is facing.
A mission audit tool will help you evaluate the congruence between your current mission, and the direction your organisation is taking. Your mission should be in line with your objects (as they appear in your governing document).
It will also help you devise a mission that reflects your values, beliefs and links to your vision. Your vision is the change in the world that takes place because your organisation carries out the excellent work it does. Your vision provides inspiration, motivation and energy.
Your mission should
• express your organisation's purpose. It should inspire support and commitment
• be a source of motivation for those who are connected to the organisation
• be articulated in an accessible and convincing manner
• be free of jargon
• be short and easy to grasp.
Why have a mission? A mission helps you to inspire commitment and to keep your vision alive. A practical aspect is that the mission provides the focus an organisation needs to be effective and efficient.
In the words of Richard Olivier in his book, ‘Inspirational leadership':
“If a mission does not have a vision to serve, it becomes more difficult to motivate oneself as a leader and the troops when things get tough. If a vision has no mission, it will remain in the air, a good idea without application”
A vision is more internally driven, a mission more externally. In other words, you can feel if your vision is being achieved, you can measure if your mission is being achieved.
OnBoard's mission : to enhance the governance of third sector organisations by the provision of high quality information, advice, and support. This is something we hope can be measured, it helps us to seek out opportunities and recognise needs as they arise, it helps the OnBoard team to discuss what we are doing to address governance needs and definitely provides a focal point for us to explore the principles and beliefs that guide our work.
Why your organisation needs vision (by Tesse Akpeki)
In my work with boards, I have heard it over and over again: ‘Vision? We don’t have time for vision! We’re too busy trying to keep our heads above water. We’re overwhelmed! We can’t afford to waste time talking about something as intangible as vision!’
Now, knowing the challenges facing boards, I have a lot of sympathy for this perspective. In a frantic world, with the wolf knocking at the door (and a lot of boards are hearing that knock) vision can seem vague, airy-fairy, a useless luxury for those with nothing better to think about. Sure, it may look impressive on a funding application, but what earthly use is vision really?
My answer is this: if your board doesn’t know the value of vision then vision is exactly what you need to be working on.
Why? Because boards get bogged down in the practicalities of running the organisation. They are very dutiful. They tick all the boxes, plough through all the reports, wrangle over details of the budget. And while they are doing all these absolutely necessary things, they lose sight of their real purpose: to provide vision for the organisation.
There is nothing vague about vision, once boards sit down and do the work of establishing one. It is the desired future, the reason for doing all that hard graft. It is the change in the world that takes place because the organisation does the excellent work it does. Vision provides inspiration. Vision brings motivation and energy.
Without vision, boards and organisations get sidetracked. Caught up in the daily grind, trustees and staff alike find their horizons contracting. Petty concerns and expediency take the place of dedication to long-term goals. With no single shared vision to guide them, everyone works to a different agenda. The organisation chases funding instead of the dream. Tough decisions get put on the back burner in favour of quick fixes.
Most organisations can function without vision, up to a point. But lack of vision is a disaster when you hit a big bump in the road: a financial crisis, a merger, a period of radical expansion. At times like these, the organisation needs a basic belief in its reason for existing. Vision helps trustees, staff and volunteers keep going when things get tough. Holding on to the vision, they remember why they are there. It makes the smooth and rough worth it.
But how do boards come up with something as lofty as a vision? Here’s some good news: based on my consulting experience, determining a vision won’t be as difficult as you fear.
The fact is that the trustees sitting around your board table already have a vision for the organisation. Otherwise, why would any of you be working there? Staff members, too, have vision and their input is valuable. The trick is to get everyone to put their visions on the table, thrash out the differences, and come up with a short, written vision statement to serve the whole organisation.
It isn’t only organisations that benefit from writing down their vision. Here’s mine and OnBoard’s: a world where boards and organisations do better because they have access to good information, advice and support. We find this vision motivational and we hope you will, too.