Strategic Governance 91
participation in consideration of these topics are essential. Many board members
also have much to offer in the development of an environmental scan, the analysis
of financial position, the development of marketing programs, and the assessment
of the institution’s strengths and vulnerabilities. Along with the president, they
see the institution as a whole. Some boards have their own committees that focus
on long-range planning and broad strategic issues. In other cases individual board
members have a special role in strategic planning based on their professional
expertise, for example, participating in, chairing, or co-chairing a task force or a
major new planning initiative.
However it comes to them, the board should consider and endorse a strategic
plan through an active process of review, often in a special meeting or retreat.
As we shall see below, once adopted, the strategy gives the agenda of each board
and committee meeting a new pertinence and purposefulness. Questions can be
raised and answered with reference to an established strategic vision, set of goals,
and metrics, as part of a continuing strategic review, assessment, and dialogue. As
the institution’s final legal authority, the board’s symbolic and real involvement
provides an aura of seriousness to the dimension of accountability in the process
of strategic leadership (Morrill 2002).
To summarize, the board’s role in strategic governance and leadership includes
the following (Morrill 2002):
- It ensures that an effective strategy process is in place and adopts those gover-
nance provisions that may be required to enable it. - It supports and participates in the process as appropriate.
- It receives the plan that results from the strategy process and considers it for
adoption. - It holds the president accountable for implementing the goals of the strategy.
- It receives data, reports, and information that enable it to monitor, assess, and
ensure accountability for the implementation of the strategy.
ORGANIZING THE WORK OF THE SPC
In discussing the possibilities of an SPC, we have considered a major organiza-
tional vehicle that can spearhead one facet of the process of strategic leadership.
Before we analyze the components of the strategy process, it is worth attending
to some of the essential steps that should be taken to prepare a strategy council
to do its work effectively, always keeping in mind its contribution to leadership.
Based on his work with hundreds of executives at MIT, Peter Senge (1990)
reminds us that one of the fundamental tasks of leadership is to design decision-
making systems that work, not simply operate them once they have been built.
Nowhere is leadership through authority more critical than in the painstaking
work that is required to build the right methods and vehicles for the tasks of
strategy.