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MONTHLY NEWSLETTER: FEBRUARY 2008 ISSUE
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OVERCOMING THREE FATAL BOARD ERRORS: PART 2 OF 3
BY BRIAN L. CARPENTER
NATIONAL CHARTER SCHOOLS INSTITUTE
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In last month´s article, I explained that charter school boards create some of their own governance problems by meeting too often, usually about every 30 days. The act of meeting creates the need to discuss something, so an agenda is devised.
This practice strikes me as a little like someone who decides they’re going to take a large suitcase on a trip before deciding what items they actually need to bring. Inevitably, of course, they will fill the suitcase with stuff because, well, they’ve already decided to bring it. Speaking for myself, I prefer to figure out which items are essential and then I select the most minimal suitcase possible—only a carry-on if possible. I propose that you can think of board meetings and agendas in the same way.
Some have objected, saying, “But Brian, if you encourage boards to meet less often, they might not discuss everything they need to.” I understand the concern here, but I contend that the solution is not to be found in some artificial frequency of meetings, but rather in helping boards determine what they should be discussing. In this month’s article, I propose one way of thinking about what boards should discuss: the 80/20 principle.
If you’re in the business world, you’re probably already using the 80/20 principle, discovered about a hundred years ago. The principle demonstrates that inputs and outputs, or consequences and actions, naturally distribute themselves in an unbalanced way in relationship to each other. For example, in many companies, a single product line out of many, or a few customers out of many, will often account for a majority of the profits. Many have successfully used this principle to improve manufacturing, law enforcement, sales, healthcare, and even self-help, etc.
I recently exchanged a couple of emails with international bestselling author Richard Koch, arguably the world’s foremost expert on the 80/20 principle. I proposed that boards can use it too and he agreed. Here’s how.
During the next three regular board meetings, ask someone (other than the board secretary who is already busy
taking minutes) to keep a running list of everything the board discusses. This should be a bullet point list with two- or three-word descriptions only, such as financial statements, classroom paint colors, playground equipment, upcoming bake-sale, price per posthole for a new fence (a client school actually copped to having discussed that one!). After three meetings, eliminate the duplicates from the list and number the items (which can be placed in any order).
At the beginning of the fourth meeting, distribute copies of the numbered list to everyone and do the following. Sort the items into one of two categories. One category is labeled, “We are obligated to the taxpayers to get this right,” the other category being “Not.”
If you’re rigorously honest with yourselves as a board (and I’m not being glib in saying that some boards find honesty with themselves difficult), it is quite likely that only about 20 percent of things you’ve talked about during the past three meetings will fall into the first category. The rest of the items are probably either informational (nice to know, but not essential to governance), the responsibility of management (important, perhaps, but not the role of the board), or driven by someone’s personal agenda—maybe a board president, a founder, a renegade member or a mouthpiece.
Now, for added fun, try to estimate the total amount of time the board spent in the past three meetings discussing the items in the essential category. Here too, you will usually find the 80/20 principle will hold—the board spends less than 20 percent of its time discussing the things most critical to the school. That means you’ve wasted countless hours discussing things that didn’t need to be discussed.
If you’re tired of this, here’s a resolution to consider: The Board of ABC Charter School hereby resolves that using the 80/20 principle, only items deemed by the board to be essential to our obligation to the taxpayers who fund this school will be discussed in board meetings.
If you can’t get your board to agree to this, or a similarly worded resolution, I’d say indicates a need to do some fundamental governance development. For those that are tracking with me, however, next month’s article offers a bonus round for improving board effectiveness.
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Brian Carpenter is author of Charter School Board University: An Introductory Course to Effective Charter School Board Governance and CEO of the National Charter Schools Institute.
For questions, or assistance in developing your board, you can reach him at (989) 205-4182 or
bcarpenter@nationalcharterschools.org.
©2007 Brian L. Carpenter
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