4 Purposeful Provocations for Association Boards

Association boards need to improve their performance to shape a better future for stakeholders and successors, according to an article in Associations Now. The author suggests four provocations to help accelerate board reinvention.

First, board members should recognize their service is voluntary, not a member benefit, and should establish agreements to assess performance. Second, boards must accept the uncomfortable task of building new capacity for sustained action to shape a different and better future. Third, discard orthodox beliefs and adopt foresight work to explore a full range of plausible futures, which should include challenging orthodox beliefs that keep associations tethered to the past. Finally, boards must increase diversity in all dimensions, including race, ethnicity, gender/gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status and ability status, to build mutually-beneficial relationships and shape more equitable, ethical, humane and just futures.

Diverse boards will help build a better future, as they will strengthen performance today and re-establish the legitimacy of association boards by removing structural barriers that have prevented associations from recruiting from a broader universe of outstanding board candidates.