Swings + Roundabouts Spring 2021

Using your Vision to bring Board conversations back on track By Peter Reynolds 2. USING THE KEY ELEMENTS IN YOUR VISION STATEMENT Every Vision statement will have two, maybe three, sometimes four key elements. Use these key elements to help unlock conversations and inform decision making. For example, the ECC has the Vision “The leading body for childcare centre owners, committees, and management; supporting and encouraging the provision of quality early childhood education and care services in New Zealand”. There are three key elements in this Vision: i) The leading body for childcare centre owners, committees, and management; ii) supporting and encouraging the provision of quality early childhood education and care services; and iii) in New Zealand. So the key questions will revolve around these three elements: ● What should a leading body look like and do? ● How do we define and articulate quality? Is it to do with the learning of children or the actions of teachers or good governance and management practices? ● What do we mean by “in New Zealand”? How do we reach all centres throughout the country? In my role as CEO of a number of non-profit and for-profit organisations, Chair of a few Boards, and consulting work with lots of Boards, Centre Managers and CEOs over the past 30 years, I have seen a very common theme emerge… most Board members, and many Chairs, do not know how to deal with Board conversations that go off the rails. In ECE I would go as far as to say many of us do not feel comfortable challenging or confronting others. We tend to prefer to avoid potential conflict. Sound familiar? Have you ever been part of these situations? ● A Board member insists on bringing their pet issues or projects up... constantly ● A Board member has a secret agenda eg positioning for political gain, or wants to be seen as representing their specific constituency ● Individuals consistently express overt or covert anger or frustration at not getting their way ● There is general confusion over what an issue is, and what plans might be possible to deal with it. Your Vision is one of the key tools that can bring these Board interactions and conversations back on track again. Your centre’s Vision is your definition of success – where you want to be in five or ten year’s time. It is therefore important for Board members to remain focussed on this. Based on decades of experience in bringing these conversations and discussions back into the realm of possibility and creating the future as a focus, here are some key strategies that will assist. 1. THE ROLE OF QUESTIONS The key role of a question is to unlock the wisdom of the people contributing to the discussion, including yourself. This wisdom is often not articulated well, or is hidden amongst a lot of distracting comments or intractable points of view. A question starts with you being the energy of curiosity, with the intent to open up possibilities that had never been considered, and to reframe points of view. A question should never be about seeking the answer, but rather to function from the space of “what if….?” Your Vision statement provides you with a glimpse of what the future could be, so it makes sense to use your Vision to keep reminding people you are there to create the future. The best way to do this is to continually use your Vision statement to help inform the sort of questions that you will ask. September 2021 { 28 }