If you have read Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers – The Story of Success, then you know he takes a fresh look at a variety of data to draw conclusions that can improve our prospects for success in work and life. If you are a nonprofit board member, I highly recommend Outliers to you. Here is an example of why.
Gladwell recounts that between 1988 and 1998 Korean Air had a loss rate 17 times higher than United Airlines rate of .27 per million departures in the same period. In 1999 Delta and Air France suspended their flying partnerships with Korean Air. Korean Air responded by changing the culture of their organization. In 2000, Korean Air brought in David Greenberg from Delta Air Lines to run their flight operations. Quoting Outliers, “But then a small miracle happened. Korean Air turned itself around….Aviation experts will tell you that Korean Air is now as safe as any airline in the world.” How did they accomplish this? And to my point, can your nonprofit board, by changing its organizational culture, facilitate greater success for the organization you serve?
A theme that ran through many Korean Air plane crash reports was “miscommunication”. David Greenberg evaluated the English language skills of the flight crews and improved their proficiency in aviation English. “English was the language of the aviation world. When the pilots sat in the cockpit and worked their way through the written checklists…those checklists were in English. If you are trying to land at JFK at rush hour… you need to be … sure you understand what’s going on.” – M. Gladwell
When you liken Mr. Greenberg’s first improvement for Korean Air to the essential boardroom communication skills of reading financial statements, for example, you find that many board members who run their own companies do not know what to look for in nonprofit financial reports. And, they don’t want to ask at your board meetings in front of their peers! In my experience, transparency and humility only triumph when the board member’s passion for the nonprofit is profoundly deep.
Consider these potential solutions to this important area of “miscommunication”. Provide an individual orientation for every new board member. Or, invite a nonprofit accountant to visit your board annually to provide financial report training. Do you recruit board members for their passion, long-term dedication, financial support of, and interest in your organization that will lead to the willingness to speak up? Is there a talented, approachable accountant on your board that serves as a ready resource? Do you provide financial reports to board members at least a week before the meeting at which you will ask them to discuss and vote to accept and
approve these reports?
If, as a group, you can’t interpret the numbers your organization is flying blind.
A subtle and profound observation Mr. Greenberg made at Korean Air was another key. He knew that Korean pilots and copilots were “trapped in roles dictated by the heavy weight of their country’s cultural legacy. They needed an opportunity to step outside those roles when they sat in the cockpit, and language was the key to that transformation. In English they would be free of the sharply defined gradients of Korean hierarchy: formal deference, informal deference, blunt, familiar, intimate, and plain. Instead the pilots could participate in a culture and language with a very different legacy… He knew that cultural legacies matter – that they are powerful and pervasive and that they persist… He believed that if the Koreans were honest about where they came from and were willing to confront those aspects of their heritage that did not suite the aviation world, they could change…He offered an opportunity to transform their relationship to their work.”
Apply these principles to your boardroom dynamics. Does your board membership agreement state that you encourage asking questions, transparency regarding qualifications and donations, and whistle-blowing? (Contact me today for a free sample if you don’t already use a board member agreement.) Is the regional or national culture around you changing, requiring more inclusive thinking? Does the culture of your board welcome respectful questioning and healthy debate? Will you table a vote if members still have questions or do you hurry through a packed agenda? Is every action step assigned to one individual for oversight and reporting?
In the analysis of plane crash reports it was also found that a plane with the copilot in the pilot’s seat and an alert senior officer beside him was safer than a plane piloted by an experienced pilot and a copilot who would not do more than hint (out of respect) at potential dangers. Again quoting Mr. Gladwell, “the typical commercial jetliner … is about a dependable as a toaster. Plane crashes are much more likely to be the
result of an accumulation of minor difficulties and seemingly trivial malfunctions…The typical accident involves seven consecutive human errors…The kinds of errors that cause plane crashes are invariably errors of teamwork and communication. One pilot knows something important and somehow doesn’t tell the other pilot. One pilot does something wrong, and the other pilot doesn’t catch the error. A tricky situation needs to be resolved through a complex series of steps – and somehow the pilots fail to coordinate and miss one of them.”
In an charity boardroom, you might expect people to be bolder than the ultra-respectful Korean flight crews. But think about what is at stake if you speak up. You may lose business connections for your company, or your reputation for being collaborative or knowledgeable may be damaged. You may not want to expose what you do not know. But what is at stake if you don’t speak up? A series of small errors can occur, compounding each other; harming the nonprofit you serve. You have a fiduciary responsibility to staff and clients to do your best.
Have you surveyed your board members recently for their concerns about your organization? Has it been more than three to five years since your last strategic planning session? Are you working to accomplish the goals set at your last planning session or is your organization adrift?
Korean Air turned around. What changes can your board make to strengthen the organization? Join the conversation; please share your thoughts and challenges in the comments below.
I am hoping for your every success!
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