Public leaders share their go-to governance resources
We know there is a great deal of information out there about elected and appointed board leadership and governance. It can be hard to know what resources offer truly useful information and which people to trust.
To help, we asked board members and leaders to share their top governance resources. The following is a collection of their recommendations, appropriate for both those new to the board and to board veterans.
Governance websites and organizations to check out
- Aspen Group specializes in providing consulting services to boards of directors, focusing on helping them improve their governance practices, establish clear outcomes and hold organizations accountable for achieving their goals.
- The Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) is a national organization that brings community college leaders together to address real-world challenges and help students succeed through advocacy and education.
- Board Source provides nonprofit board resources to increase board effectiveness and strengthen organizational impact and serve as the national voice for inspired and effective board leadership.
- The Community College League of California (CCLC) is a nonprofit public benefit corporation whose membership consists of the 73 local public community college districts in California. It supports locally elected trustees and community college CEOs to serve their students and communities by advocating on their behalf at the state and federal levels.
- Govern for Impact is a community of practitioners, researchers, consultants and academics acting for public benefit by promoting and developing governance excellence.
- The National School Board Association (NSBA), a national association representing school board members, works to ensure each student everywhere has access to excellent and equitable public education governed by high-performing school board leaders and supported by the community.
- Policy Governance, created by governance guru John Carver, is an integrated set of concepts and principles that describes the job of any governing board. It outlines the way boards can be successful in their servant-leadership role, as well as in their all-important relationship with management.
- Roberts Rules of Order is America’s foremost guide to parliamentary procedure. It is used by professional associations, fraternal organizations and local governments.
And our own Diligent blog offers strategy, tips and tools to help mission-driven boards do their work better and more efficiently.
Governance experts to follow
- Linda Dawson co-founded AGI Aspen Group International (AGI) following a 10-year executive-level stint with the Colorado Association of School Boards, where she directed all board training and development as well as developing custom services.
- Karen Fryday-Field is the of CEO of Govern for Impact. She consults regularly with boards of directors to address governance effectiveness and to develop new ways to add value at the governance level.
- Tyrone Taborn is publisher, chairman and CEO of Career Communications Group (CCG), a minority-owned media services company that connects top technology talent to employers that have the potential to fulfill their career goals. He is the author of Metaquake USA: What the Metaverse Is and How It Will Shape Your Future.
Favorite governance resources
Download this comprehensive list of governance resources in pdf format today, to increase your board's effectiveness and achieve greater organizational impact.
Governance and board podcasts to listen to
- Future Directors podcast with founder Paul Smith, who talks with diverse thinkers, leaders and governance geeks from around the world.
- The Municipal Voice radio podcast connects Connecticut’s municipalities. It the source for municipal news across the state.
Some School Board Association podcasts that you might enjoy:
- Inside IASB, Illinois Association of School Boards
- The Voice of School Boards by SCSBA, South Carolina School Boards Association
- WASB Podcast by Wisconsin Association of School Boards
- OSBA Podcast: Leading the Way by Ohio School Boards Association
- TASB Talks, the Texas Association of School Boards podcast
Governance books you might find helpful
The Art of Governing Coherently: Mastering the Implementation of Coherent Governance® and Policy Governance by Linda J. Dawson and Randy Quinn is a practical guide loaded with solutions, all based on processes successfully in use today by boards across the U.S and internationally. While many of the examples offered here come from the world of public school boards and nonprofit boards, the implementation processes are equally applicable to boards of all types
Boards That Make a Difference: A New Design for Leadership in Nonprofit and Public Organizations by John Carver. Carver continues to debunk the entrenched beliefs and habits that hobble boards and to replace them with his innovative approach to effective governance.
Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life by Susan David. Emotional agility is a revolutionary, science-based approach that allows us to navigate life’s twists and turns with self-acceptance, clear-sightedness, and an open mind.
Executive Policy Governance: A Leadership Model for Local Government by George B. Cuff. This book is intended for anyone involved in an elected capacity at the local level. It offers a valuable model for any system based on democratic principles, including voting rights, equity, fairness, respect for the rule of law and a willingness to adhere to democratically determined decision.
Fierce Leadership: A Bold Alternative to the Worst "Best" Practices of Business Today by Susan Scott. With new approaches to everything from employee feedback to corporate diversity to customer relations, Scott offers fresh and surprising alternatives to six of the so-called “best” practices permeating today’s businesses.
Good Governance is a Choice: A Way to Re-Create Your Board the Right Way by Randy Quinn and Linda J. Dawson is a book about, and for, boards of public and nonprofit organizations. Its central focus is on public school boards and the special challenges they face, but the governing model it introduces, Coherent Governance, is applicable to any board of any type.
The Governance Core by Davis Campbell and Michael Fullan. Designed to guide educational leadership past difficult and formidable challenges, the governance system outlined in this book will lead to school districts and schools operating at the highest levels of effectiveness.
Peter Drucker's Five Most Important Questions: Enduring Wisdom for Today's Leaders by Peter F Drucker and Frances Hesselbein. By applying Drucker's leadership framework in the present context of today's leaders and those who lead with them, this book is an essential resource for people leading, managing and working in all three sectors — public, private and social.
Reinventing Your Boards, Reinventing Your Board: A Step-by-Step Guide to Implementing Policy Governance by John Carver and Miriam Carver. Carver’s groundbreaking Policy Governance model is the best-known, respected and talked about governance model in the world and has fundamentally influenced the way organizations are governed.
Schools Cannot Do It Alone by Jamie Vollmer. Drawing on his work in hundreds of districts, Vollmer offers teachers, administrators, board members and their allies a practical program to secure the understanding, trust, permission and support they need to change the system and increase student success.
The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything by Stephen M. R. Covey. Trust is the very basis of the new global economy, and Covey shows how trust and the speed at which it is established with clients, employees and constituents is the essential ingredient for any high-performance, successful organization.
What School Boards Can Do: Reform Governance for Urban Schools by Donald R. McAdams. To provide essential guidance to urban school board members committed to high achievement for all children, McAdams presents a comprehensive approach to board leadership he calls reform governance. This accessible framework brings together all the work of an urban school board.
10 Questions Every School Board Member Should Ask by Ken Odom Jr. The revolutionary idea of a publicly funded education governed by locally elected volunteers is the subject of numerous reform and improvement efforts. One party is strangely silent in conversations about these efforts - the locally elected volunteers who are supposed to be leading. School board members can find their voices by asking 10simple questions.
Governance in the Digital Age: A Guide for the Modern Corporate Board Director by Brian Stafford and Dottie Schindlinger. This book seeks to chart the technology-fueled changes taking place in the field of corporate governance and describes the impact these changes are having on boards and the enterprises they govern.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and pointed anecdotes, Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, service and human dignity.
Resources for training and onboarding new trustees
We hope that you and your board colleagues will find these expert recommendations useful and insightful. New trustees getting a grip on governance and their role on the board may find the suggestions particularly valuable as they get up to speed.
You can store this list in your Diligent Community Document Library to use during onboarding and training, and we hope that the list is useful for all leaders in mission-driven organizations.
