Decision-making and sense-making While much of our focus is on problem-solving and decision-making when we reflect on non-profit governance, without effective sense-making, boards will be likely to make poor decisions. Good decision-making could therefore be considered somewhat dependent on good sense-making. Individual or personal sensemaking When we engage in sense-making we are “structuring the unknown”… Continue reading Making sense
Tag: strategy
Strategic Causality – Part 2
When ‘strategic causality’ was introduced in an earlier post, it was described as “how causes lead to effects“. Of course, all reflections on strategic planning and decision-making have that recurring theme. Hence, my posts on strategic archery, evaluation, and reflective governance can be seen as background reading for this post (see links below). Dependencies and… Continue reading Strategic Causality – Part 2
Foolosophy in the boardroom
Archetype lenses In systems thinking, we often use mental models, of which the archetype is one variety, to provide us with a lens that helps to simplify the ‘story’ of what’s happening in our work and social environment. Archetypes come in many shapes and sizes. At the macro level, system archetypes decompose the elements and… Continue reading Foolosophy in the boardroom
Strategic Causality
Delving beneath the surface In my reflective practice work with mentees from a wide variety of organisations, a good deal of our time is spent exploring ‘beneath the surface’ of events and circumstances. Our aim is to better understand the underlying drivers and factors at work, to inform the shaping of considered responses, and avoid… Continue reading Strategic Causality
The science of ‘worth’ – your Theory of Value
Non-profit directors and managers don’t need to be philosophers to consider issues of value in their work, but it may help them to recognise the many different forms of value they have a responsibility to promote and nurture. Every decision and action is, of course, an expression of value. What we consider important, or of… Continue reading The science of ‘worth’ – your Theory of Value
Measuring your social value (impact)
Traditional notions of value in the context of organisational governance have tended to focus on economic definitions and metrics. Value for money, profitability, cash flow, price/performance, and ‘value adding’ through risk reduction, automation, demand aggregation, logistic efficiency, etc. are just some of the forms of economic value used by managers and directors to assess the… Continue reading Measuring your social value (impact)
Reflective Governance: The MELD Model
The MELD Model is a blend, or ‘melding’, of the COBIT5 EDM Governance Model and the Triple-Loop Learning Model, which has its origins in the work of Profs Chris Argyris and Donald Schon. MELD stands for Measure, Evaluate, Learn, and Direct. See the header image above. This contrivance is simply an elaboration of the Evaluate,… Continue reading Reflective Governance: The MELD Model
Locus Focus Vs ‘Hocus Pocus’
Measuring success is part of the governance and management responsibility of all non-profit organisations. This responsibility augments obligations related to compliance with legal, regulatory and ethical requirements ‘Hocus Pocus’ According to vocabulary.com, ‘hocus-pocus‘ is an illusion or a meaningless distraction that tricks you in some way. Originally derived from invocations used in magic shows (like… Continue reading Locus Focus Vs ‘Hocus Pocus’
Organisational ‘Health & Wellbeing’
Organisational Culture – Part 6 Organisational dis-eases and mood disorders In recent posts, various metaphors for organisational culture have been noted, with the ‘garden ecosystem’ and ‘human personality’ being relied upon to reflect the nature of the organisation as a complex adaptive system. The human metaphor for an organisation can be extended to think about… Continue reading Organisational ‘Health & Wellbeing’
Are we there yet? Evaluating NFP outputs, outtakes, outcomes & impact
Evaluation – Part 2 Evaluation is one of the central elements in the EDM (Evaluate, Direct, Monitor) Governance Model, but its role in governance (and management) is often obscured by the use of other terms, like ‘problem-solving’ or ‘decision-making’. The importance of evaluation in non-profit governance is highlighted in the extracts from AICD’s NFP Governance… Continue reading Are we there yet? Evaluating NFP outputs, outtakes, outcomes & impact