SLIDE 1
Nine Steps toward a Good Start
- 1. Clarify mutual expectations.
- 2. Get the questions right.
- 3. Be patient.
- 4. Avoid individual pleas.
- 5. Coordinate social activity.
University of Virginia Board of Visitors Richard Chait, Professor - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
University of Virginia Board of Visitors Richard Chait, Professor - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
University of Virginia Board of Visitors Richard Chait, Professor Emeritus, Harvard University August 3, 2018 Nine Steps toward a Good Start 1. Clarify mutual expectations. 2. Get the questions right. 3. Be patient. 4. Avoid individual pleas.
SLIDE 2
SLIDE 3
Nine Steps toward a Good Start
- 6. Provide a start-up package.
- 7. Avoid comparisons to prior presidents.
- 8. Attend to the president’s health and welfare.
- 9. Attend to the board’s performance.
SLIDE 4
The Proposition
Trustees who understand their responsibilities are the best hope for the careful consideration of the long run. Henry Rosovsky. The University: An Owner’s Manual The role of the board is to protect the university of the future from the actions of the present. David Riesman
SLIDE 5
The Objective
Consistently Constructively Consequential Governance
SLIDE 6
Hallmarks of Effective Boards
- Perform indispensable functions.
- Focus on the “main things” v. “major in minors.”
- Share ownership of challenges, partner with president.
- Foster a healthy board culture.
SLIDE 7
Board Culture
- Clear norms
- Team players
- Distributed influence
- Collective wisdom
- Mutual accountability
- Respect and trust
- Charismatic listeners
- Constructive dissent
- Transparency
- Confidentiality
- Diligence
- Ambiguous norms
- Huddle of quarterbacks
- Dominant inner circle
- Personal convictions
- Collective impunity
- Disregard and distrust
- Assertive speakers
- Back channel agitation
- Opacity
- Seepage
- Disengagement
Healthy Unhealthy
SLIDE 8
Hallmarks of Effective Boards
- Perform indispensable functions.
- Focus on the “main things” v. “major in minors.”
- Share ownership of challenges, partner with President.
- Foster a healthy board culture with strong norms.
- Model behaviors/values trustees want University to exhibit.
- Think and work in three modes.
SLIDE 9
Construct to Compete?
LSU Recreation Center Colby College 536 ft Lazy River Athletic Center
$85M Renovation $200M, 350K sq. ft.
SLIDE 10
Construct to Compete?
Fiduciary Oversight
Cost? Size? Location? Facilities? Equipment? Architects and design? LEED certified? Schedule? Naming opportunities?
Strategic Foresight
Affect on enrollment? Competitive necessity? Affect on constituents’ well-being? Regional venue? Open to community? How else to gain competitive advantage?
Reflective Insight What do sense do we make of student consumerism?
What stance do we take? Is the customer always right? How do we reconcile core values and market realities?
SLIDE 11
Three Modes: One Goal
Fiduciary Oversight Strategic Foresight Reflective Insight
Effective Governance
SLIDE 12
Pertinent Practices
- Find. Frame. Focus.
- Decide what to decide.
- Develop 12-18 month work plans for board and committees.
- Schedule KPAWN/KVAWN dialogues.
- Wear tri-focals.
Organize to do the work.
- Align Board’s work and UVA’s priorities.
- Ensure strategy drives structure, not vice versa.
- Board mostly drives committees, not vice versa.
- Reconfigure committees.
SLIDE 13
Pertinent Practices
Make meetings meaningful
- Highlight questions, stakes, opportunities to add value.
- Clarify the Visitors’ role appropriate to stage of process.
- Flip the boardroom: less presentation, more discussion.
- Solicit real-time feedback from executives.
- Summarize implications and expectations.
Engender accountability
- Adhere to shared expectations.
- Regularly evaluate Board/committee meetings & performance
- Elicit executives’ perspectives.
- Distribute and discuss results, take responsive actions.
- Exemplify performance accountability.
SLIDE 14
The Payoffs
- Higher altitude, longer horizon, greater consequence.
- More value added to UVA, more value derived from service.
- Higher ROI for trustees, administrators, and University.
- Better purposes = better performance.
- Better performance = better partner.
- Better partner = better UVA.
SLIDE 15
Presidential Evaluation
Design Elements Key Considerations
- What Board wants to learn.
- What President hopes to learn.
- Relevant criteria, evidence, and sources.
- Balance of formal and informal feedback.
- Separate or coupled to compensation.
- Assessment not referendum.
Consistent Transparent Inclusive Empirical Contextual Actionable