Conscious Chief Executives E-zine - Issue #08

Creating Strategic Awareness with your Board

Steven Bowman
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What is Strategic Awareness?

One of the greatest challenges facing Boards today is ensuring they are discussing and exploring the right issues, making the decisions that create the future for their organization, and being nimble enough that they are able to spot and take advantage of changes in their environment. This is where Strategic Awareness comes in.

Strategic Awareness is how non-analytic data is accessed through what is best described as awareness or inner knowing, and is incorporated into the strategic decision-making process of the Board and senior executives as an integral component. Furthermore, awareness when combined with strategy enhances analytic thinking and provides insights as to timing, specific strategy and innovation.

Strategic Awareness allows us to take in a wide range of information and perceive things in a broader context, to take advantage of opportunities and to avoid problems that trap other people.

Strategic Awareness creates synergy that allows us to be able to make the accurate business decisions, create new ideas that will generate money, envision new trends, know who to hire, know who to partner with and know how to transform risk into strategic advantage.

This powerful combination of awareness and business strategy creates momentum and enables us to take advantage of all the new opportunities that the hyper-change environment is creating.

• Strategic Awareness is the process of fusing Awareness to Strategy, and incorporating real world knowledge of industry, global trends and possible futures.
• Awareness is the ability each of us has to know something directly without analytic processing. It is an intrinsic skill and a natural gift we all have. Among its many descriptions, awareness is depicted as the ability to know without the use of rational thought processes or direct cognition. Another description is the capacity to know without words, to perceive the truth without justification or cognitive interpretation, reasoning or explanation. It is not bound by this physical reality.
• Our view is that being strategic is less about planning ahead and more about continuous monitoring of the environment, rapid response and fast adaptation. Being strategic, then, means being clear about the organization's vision and mission, being aware of the organization's resources, and incorporating both into being consciously responsive to a dynamic environment. Being strategic results in the development of strategy.

Strategy is the agreed course of action that your organization will take to achieve the vision and mission of that organization.

Strategy takes into account what has occurred in the past, and what might occur into the future, and is developed as a set of directions that will produce an outcome that will deliver on the vision and mission. Each of these “directions” are typically called strategies.

Awareness without strategy often results in being mesmerized in the potential possibility realm, bouncing from idea to idea almost at random without the need or strategy to carry it through in physical reality.

Strategy without awareness leads to dangerous practices that are not fluid and do not take into account the changing environment.

“There is only one thing worse than not having a strategic plan- and that is having one that does not change”- Steven Bowman

For more on Strategic Awareness, go to www.the2bowmans.com>>

Developing a Board Culture of Strategic Awareness

Strategic awareness focuses on what matters to the vision of the organization, the impact on the community the organization serves.

Let’s start with the Board.

1. Select the right people for the Board- how a Board member chooses to “be” is more important than their set of technical skills. Even for those Boards who are wholly elected, these are the abilities that should be encouraged from those elected.

• No fixed point of view-willing to look at options, not try to make the world fit their fixed point of view of how things should be. 
• Willing to “be” the question, and function from curiosity and possibility, not answer.
• Willing to receive everything without judgment, and look at information as it is, not as good or bad, right or wrong.
• Willing to both analyze and listen to intuition, take note of the risk and forecasts, and also listen to their “gut instinct”.
• Prosperity vs Scarcity, where life is seen as possibility, not lack of.

Everyone has these abilities-it is all a matter of personal choice. A Board will be more strategically aware and create greatest change where these skills are encouraged and modeled by the Chair and Directors, rather than a Board where the individuals have high technical skills, but choose not to use the abilities mentioned above.

2. Develop a strategic induction program. One of the best ways to develop a strategic awareness culture in the Board is to start…at the start. As part of the induction program for new Board members, develop an induction session that includes:

• Relevant papers…and…
• The Culture of the Board…here’s how we stay strategic as a Board
• Questions we expect you to consider and ask
• High expectations from the beginning
• How we live the vision and mission

Click here to view a short YouTube video clip on Board Induction>>

3. Design meetings to facilitate strategic thinking and strategic awareness

Make every meeting a planning session-structure the Board agenda to reflect the key strategies. Contact Steven Bowman if you would like a copy of this type of agenda ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

• Add the vision statement to the Board agenda- If the Board choose to use this to inform discussions and decisions, this can focus the discussion on what is really important to the organization.
• Staff reports aligned to strategy- Ensure that staff reports or proposals indicate how they are achieving the strategic directions and where they fit in the strategic plan.
• Professional development of Board- every second Board meeting, arrange for someone to provide the Board with strategic insight into the environment they are making decisions about.
• • Staff presentations to Board- every second Board meeting have a staff member make presentations to the Board regarding the strategic issues that staff person faces in their area of responsibility, and the Board ask questions regarding those strategic issues
• Changes to strategic environment section- develop a section of the agenda where Board are encouraged to bring to the Board’s attention any changes they have seen, heard about or have some insight into that may affect the assumptions the organization works under through its strategic plan.
• Dashboard reporting- Develop dashboard reports that highlight graphically the key elements of the strategic plan, finances and relevant areas such as Occupational Health and Safety statistics. Contact Steven Bowman ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) if you would like some copies of what these dashboard reports might look like.

4. Structure interactions to facilitate strategic awareness

• Remind them that when two people have the same opinion, one is unnecessary!(Many thanks to Dr Terrie Temkin for this one!! See www.corestrategies4nonprofits.com for more information on Terrie and her work.)
• Provide a list of Strategic Questions for Board Members as part of the standard Board pack of papers
• Ask different board members to take on the point of view of a specific stakeholder group as part of the discussion
• Insist on multiple options for discussion and decision, rather than "the answer"

Click here to view a short YouTube video clip on Strategic Thinking as Board Engagement>>

Click here to view a short YouTube video clip on Strategic Reporting from the CEO>>

Suggestion

There are 51 short YouTube video clips we have created on nonprofit governance, strategy, risk and leadership found at http://www.youtube.com/user/ConsciousGovernance which make excellent thought starters for Board development sessions, and for Board induction.

Click here >> to view them. Please feel free to copy these video clips and utilise them as part of your Board/staff or member development program.- Steve Bowman 

 

What's New?

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1 day Masterclass in Advanced Nonprofit Strategy, Risk and Governance Steven Bowman-March 09, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth. Leading-edge strategies and tactics for nonprofit executives and Board members that will shake long-held beliefs about strategy and governance. Click here >> to download details and registration form for Masterclass.

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Mission Based Management in Difficult Times Peter Brinkerhoff, USA- March 09, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, New Zealand Tools and understanding to guide your organisation through the challenging times we are in today and those that will arise in the future.

Fundraising and the Non-Profit Board Member Carol Weisman, USA- April 09, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, New Zealand How to make it work for your Board without Gin or Prozac!

Build a Better Board in 30 days Carol Weisman, USA- April 09, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, New Zealand Tips and techniques on how to take a good Board and make them great, how to take an average Board and get them moving.

Strategic Plan Facilitation

Contact Steven Bowman for an invitation to work with us to create your strategic plan that is truly strategic with embedded project action plans: in 1 day, involving key stakeholders, with full accountability to the Board, staff and stakeholders.

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What would it take for your strategic plan to be truly strategic? Do you want to know how to embed the strategic plan into all facets of your organization and get amazing buy-in from Board, staff and stakeholders? Do you want a process that is quick, focused and provides step-by-step guidelines that result in a strategic plan that is accountable and measurable? Only US$45.00, this Quick Guide is available as a downloadable e-book immediately. Click here for more information and to order >>>>

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Previous Issues Topics

Issue #001 -- When Board members step over the line

Issue #002 -- How can the Chair and the CEO work together productively?

Issue #003 -- What are the Powers of Members vs Nonprofit Boards?

Issue #004 -- How can we improve attendances at Board meetings?

Issue #005 -- How do we remove unproductive Board members?

Issue #006 -- Creating Strategic Awareness from your Vision Statement

Issue #007 -- Are you a Board-Savvy CEO?

Click here for links to back issues

Next Issue Topic

Next issue will focus on nonprofit Board remuneration (should we, shouldn't we, and why), a very emotive topic that has arisen more frequently in the past few months.
(Mind you, I might change the topic if something even more topical comes in. Let me know what you would like to see!)
Please send us any of your feedback, or any questions that you might like to see in the e-zine. All communications are confidential.
Happy reading
Steven Bowman

Contact Us

Contact us if you would like more information on any of the following:

Board and Governance audit and review Our Strategic Governance review is a comprehensive independent review of Board processes, including Board strategic processes, Board structure, Board and stakeholder communication, Board compliance responsibilities and strategic operational issues that directly affect the governance of your organization.

Strategic Planning facilitation Our Strategic Planning process encapsulates the most robust, time-efficient planning techniques to provide a focused, vision driven strategic plan, with value added components that embed the strategic plan into the Governance and operational framework of the organization. Powerful success measures, a unique ethics filter, strategic reporting frameworks and strategic thinking processes are end results of our Strategic Planning process.

Strategic Plan annual review facilitation Is your strategic plan on track? Our strategic plan review facilitation provides a focused forum for reviewing your existing strategic plan, with four key questions explored?1. What has worked with our strategic plan 2. What has not worked with our strategic plan 3. What has changed in our environment 4. What do we need to add or take out of our strategic plan

Telephone (61)3 95099529
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Email us steven @ conscious-governance.com
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