High drama

A while back I referred to the wonderful ‘Downton Abbey’, and a curiosity about things nonprofit on the small and big screens, of which there are relatively few examples. Actually, it surprises me no one has produced a drama - or perhaps more appropriately, a comedy - set in and around the goings-on of a nonprofit organisation. The only one I can think of is ‘Wildside’, an ABC TV series from the late ‘90s in which a “renegade crisis centre” (as described in their archives) provided part of the backdrop for the high drama that unfolded each week. 

I imagine this crisis centre could have been a nonprofit, however from memory, the show involved lots of police action and shouting, and probably didn’t have a lot to do with anything quite as dour as the inner workings of a benevolent organisation or nonprofit governance. Unless of course there were scenes involving monthly committee meetings, where police action and shouting is certainly possible. 

I'm being tongue in cheek however, as they like to say on Virgin flights, there is a serious side to the proceedings: high drama does definitely unfold in many nonprofits, playing out most often in board meetings. Indeed in my travels in nonprofit land, the most common complaints I hear from CEOs involve tensions between themselves and the board members to whom they are accountable. These difficulties, often the result of misunderstandings, poor communication and personal reactions, result in stress, ill-health (often on both sides) and organisational dysfunction.

I also witness difficulties between individual board members, some of whom struggle to see eye-to-eye on some or all issues. Elected members often come to the table laden with ideals, beliefs and individual and often highly personal agendas: coupled with an imperfect understanding of the affairs of the organisation and an underlying anxiety about their legal and fiduciary responsibilities, the combination can be incendiary.

What to do? Unfortunately, these are situations that are often left to play out on their own. If there are CEO-board tensions, the board often won’t be open to suggestions from the CEO to bring in an independent advisor to help diffuse the situation. And it’s nigh-on impossible to first reach out to individual board members, given they are relatively random members of the public who are only nominally attached to the organisation (few, if any, will have an organisation email address for example). 

As a result, those organisations that do invite external and independent observation and assistance tend to be those with an already high awareness of the benefits of good governance and stable, harmonious board-board-CEO relationships. That, or they’re staring down the barrel of a protracted dispute, in which case they might be looking to skip the governance training and head straight to the solicitor’s. In these instances, the re-building process will come much later. 

I’ve pondered this situation for a while and still have no concrete answers. My solution to date has been twofold: to offer workshops that simultaneously build group harmony and governance understandings; and to provide professional supervision to nonprofit people on both sides of the boardroom table. However, as I’ve already discussed, workshops tend to be picked up by already high-functioning boards, and board members are very difficult to reach independent of the organisation's CEO, with whom they may be in dispute.

I feel the next step for Nonprofit Assist will be finding ways to affordably broadcast the availability of supervision to nonprofit folk. It’s a good way for people to get much needed support during stressful times and start to find their way to the heart of the matter at hand. If you know anyone, CEO, board member or staff, who is struggling in or with their role, do refer them.