On the subject of books/essays about the role of boards, I wanted to suggest Servant Leadership, the collection of Robert Greenleaf's essays on leadership and institutions. Specifically, the first three essays: "The Servant as Leader, "The Institution as Servant", and "Trustee as Servants" (note: the first essay, "Servant as Leader", has nothing to do with the question of effective nonprofit governance, but it's necessary to understand the other two essays; plus, it's one of the great essays ever written on the subject of leadership).
This is true whether we adopt my original idea that each board member keeps what they learn from these conversations entirely to themselves, or Ben's better proposed modification that it's confidential but can be shared with the whole board.
On the subject of books/essays about the role of boards, I wanted to suggest Servant Leadership, the collection of Robert Greenleaf's essays on leadership and institutions. Specifically, the first three essays: "The Servant as Leader, "The Institution as Servant", and "Trustee as Servants" (note: the first essay, "Servant as Leader", has nothing to do with the question of effective nonprofit governance, but it's necessary to understand the other two essays; plus, it's one of the great essays ever written on the subject of leadership).
That said, I should pr... (read more)