Governance is back on the agenda at a national level. A lot of people are now keen to improve the standard of trusteeship in voluntary sector bodies.
This week is Trustees’ Week, of which Governance & Leadership magazine is the media partner, and the question on the agenda is how we improve trustee skills.
There appears to be a view in some parts of the sector that the conversation itself will be the solution: so long as we all talk more about trusteeship, skills will get better.
This may be the case. But it is not the only way. If we want better trustees, we must also change the environment to make it easier for that happen. It needs resource, regulation and a clear framework for change.
Change, to be most effective, must be both incremental and systemic. It must come from a ground-up movement, and a top-down change in the environment.
The governance sector prefers the bottom-up approach. If we want trustees to behave in different ways, we must make them and their peers feel that is the right way to behave, by gradually shifting the basis of discussion. We must persuade opinion-formers to put it at the top of their agenda.
A note of caution, though: governance experts warn against letting people from a single profession dominate a trustee board, because they all think and work in the same manner. But governance experts are all from the same profession too, and they prefer to work through persuasion, conversation and consensus. So those are the solutions we are hearing.
But if you want to drive change, there’s another tactic: you can also pull some levers and spend some money.
Which is not to say we need to lay down the law. We have a regulator who is already doing that, perhaps too ardently. The sector needs to shape the environment to facilitate awareness and make it easier for trustees to improve. There should be regulation and legislation, but it should be to empower and strengthen, not threaten and cajole.
To this end, I’d like to see the creation of a large-scale Institute of Trusteeship, providing training and best practice guidance. I’d like stronger and better-funded representative and lobbying bodies for governance, speaking far more vocally about good trusteeship. The Association of Chairs is a repository of enormous wisdom, and it’s growing stronger. But I’d like to see its remit expanded and its reach widened.
I’d like the sector to lobby hard for the legal status of trusteeship to be beefed up. Trustees should get the same status as school governors and magistrates. I’d like to see much more substantial research and informationgathering. And I’d like to see a concerted campaign just to tell trustees that they are actually trustees, because so many of them do not even know.
I’m sure there are other, better solutions to building up the profile and skills of trustees. Whatever they are, I’d love to hear them.
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