Introduction to the Policy Governance Manual

Board leadership requires that the Board provide vision. To do so, the Board must first have an adequate vision of its own job. That role is best conceived neither as volunteer helper nor as watchdog, but as trustee-owner. Policy Governance is an approach to the job of governing which emphasizes values; vision; empowerment of the Board, Board Councils, Operating Committees, and staff; and the strategic ability to lead leaders.

Observing principles of the Policy Governance Process, the Board of Directors crafts its values into the four types of policies below. Policies written this way enable the Board to focus its wisdom into one central brief document, the Policy Manual.

• ENDS POLICIES
  The Board defines which human needs are to be met and for whom. Ends describe “what good, for whom, at what relative worth.  The Ends in Policy Governance refers to the effect an organizations seeks to have on the world outside itself.
• GOVERNANCE POLICIES
  The Board determines its philosophy, its accountability, and the specifics of its own job.
  Policy Governance. Within the Governance the Board clarifies how it governs and the manner in which it delegates authority to Board Councils.
• RELATIONSHIP POLICIES
  The Board clarifies the manner in which it delegates authority to Staff and Operating Committees as well as how it evaluates performance.
• LIMITATIONS POLICIES
  The Board establishes the boundaries of acceptability within which subordinate group methods and activities can take place. These limiting policies, therefore, apply to Operating Committee, and staff means, (how it gets things done) rather than to Ends (what is to be achieved).

Manual Following the Policy Governance model of John Carver's "Reinventing Your Board", publisher Jossey-Bass, 1997

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