Tip #3 Board Policy Focused on Organizational Results
While Mission and Vision Statements can be quite useful for organizations, they generally don’t involve descriptions of results to be achieved by an organization. Mission Statements typically define the activities or services that the organization provides while Vision Statements may describe an idealized future state to be striven towards but never fully achieved. As such they may provide clarity about an organization’s services and role in the community while helping to enhance motivation of employees and others supportive of the organization.
If organizational results are not addressed in your Mission or Vision Statements, consider developing a results-oriented policy statement that defines what outcomes or benefits your organization is to provide and for whom these outcomes or benefits are to be provided. Such a policy focuses on the impact your organization wishes to have (its reason for being) rather than on current or planned activities, services, or means to be used. When the organization’s board of directors spells out what results it wants the organization to achieve it can then empower management to select activities, services, or means to achieve the board’s desired organizational results. A board’s definition of the organization’s intended impact can promote management accountability and a results-oriented culture for the entire organization.
Within the Policy Governance® system, such a results-oriented policy statement is called an Ends Policy. Such a policy deals with three issues: the results or benefits to be produced by the organization, the persons for whom these results or benefits are to be produced, and the worth of such results or benefits. The “worth” component of the policy can address the following two issues: 1) the worth or value of results or benefits produced relative to the costs incurred to produce them, and 2) the relative priority of various benefits or beneficiaries.
Ends Policies begin with a broad summary statement addressing the three Ends Policy issues of benefits, beneficiaries, and worth. Subsequent policy statements further define and may prioritize benefits and beneficiaries. A sample summary statement (also called a Global Ends Policy Statement) for a school board follows: “Students of XYZ school acquire the academic knowledge, character traits, and life skills necessary to succeed in life after graduation at a justifiable cost.” Subsequent (lower level) policy statements can further define and prioritize categories of students to be served, such as students within a specified geographical area, students with special learning needs, students with physical challenges, students from low income families, students from families whose primary language is not English, etc. Lower level Ends Policy statements can also specify the academic knowledge, character traits, and life skills to be focused on by the school. Specific metrics are subsequently identified so that the results or benefits to be produced are measureable.
Ends Policies are the Fourth Principle of the Policy Governance® system.