Tip #5 Three Ideas for Efficient Use of Board Committees
Boards can often enhance their efficiency as a result of a thorough review of their board committee structure and functioning. Three specific suggestions follow:
1. Reduce redundancy. Look to see if the same issues are being discussed and dealt with by more than one committee. Also, look to see if the board routinely repeats the work of any individual committees.
2. Prefer ad hoc to standing committees. Regularly review your standing committees to make sure that they are really needed and have clear charters or job descriptions. When committees are indicated, prefer ad hoc committees whenever possible, that is, temporary committees set up for a specific project or task and dissolved when the project or task is completed.
3. Align board committees with board work. Make sure that your board committees are focused on board work and not on areas of responsibility that have been delegated to the CEO and his or her staff. (Certainly the CEO and his or her staff can set up committees to help them with their work but these would not be committees of the board.)
Consistent with the above suggestions, many boards are reducing the number of their committees and moving away from committees that mirror operational functions (for example, personnel committee, program committee, marketing committee, etc.) to committees more clearly aligned with board functions. See Blog Tip 4 Roles of the Board and the Executive at www.BoardsOnCourse.com/blog.
The three suggestions above are incorporated within the Policy Governance® system but can certainly be applied by any board whether it practices the Policy Governance® system or not. In the Policy Governance® system committees support but don't duplicate the work of the board. They do pre-work to assist the full board in its deliberation of board issues. To say that the real work of the board occurs in its committees would not be a description of a Policy Governance® board where the expectation is that all board members be knowledgeable about key board decision issues. The Policy Governance® board does not rubberstamp committee recommendations but is enlightened and supported in its decision-making by the work of its committees.
Note. In the Policy Governance® system, the term CEO is the generic term used for the top operations person who may have one of any number of titles such as CEO, executive director, director, superintendent, administrator, etc.