Most governance boards in the nonprofit sector do a lousy job of training board members for governance. Governors are expected to acquire skills like collaboration and strategizing through osmosis and a brief annual orientation. Perhaps that’s why participants in Peer Learning Circles (PLCs), conducted by the Institute for Nonprofit Studies at Mount Royal College in Calgary, are so enthusiastic about their experience. “Governance requires a courageous conversation, and every board member should be a party to it,” observes Colleen Hood, who has served as a board member and chair for a variety of nonprofit and for-profit organizations. Colleen is a recent participant in a PLC who appreciated the candid exchanges that took place in her group. She’s convinced a governance model can work to the benefit of an organization, but it means board members have to be prepared to ask tough questions and be honest with other governors. The PLC format facilitates asking those tough questions.

Openhearted conversations are a hallmark of effective peer learning. A key contributor to the success of any PLC is the quality of the facilitation. Dr. Keith Seel, director of the institute, has facilitated a variety of PLCs and believes that professional facilitation is critical. “A meeting is not a peer learning circle,” maintains Seel. “A PLC is a facilitated exchange between people who are similar in terms of professional or volunteer affiliation, and who meet with a learning goal in mind.” Seel has a checklist for ensuring effective facilitation of a PLC:

  • Ground rules and a confidentiality agreement help to establish and maintain trust between participants.
  • Facilitation must be professional, preferably provided by facilitators from outside the organization.
  • Facilitators need to be well prepared for meetings, with agenda and learning materials readied in advance.
  • PLCs are best held off-site, at a neutral location.

Professional facilitation ensures that the PLC is reasonably free of politics, and that the organization or leader that called the PLC does not impose its perspective. Facilitators are responsible for becoming knowledgeable about the organization – its structure, how it conducts business, and its organizational competencies. In Seel’s experience, it is not appropriate for a board member to take on a facilitation role for his board’s PLC meetings. Outside, expert facilitation ensures neutrality and smoothly-run meetings.

Step-by-step guide

As the leader responsible for launching the PLC process at the institute, Seel has refined a process for conducting PLCs. This process has been tested with a variety of nonprofit organizations. The institute has developed templates and worksheets for guiding discussion and encouraging forthright sharing among participants. At a minimum, participants in a PLC need to:

  • Create a disclosure agreement, to ensure confidentiality and build trust in the process.
  • Identify qualified and neutral facilitators to lead the group’s meetings.
  • Decide what topics the group will cover.
  • Agree to meet on a scheduled basis for seven or eight meetings to complete the PLC process.

A confidentiality or disclosure agreement alleviates anxiety among participants. Governors need to know that management will not intrude, and that there will be no repercussions for sharing information or experiences. Participants agree to place a “bubble” around their sharing, so that nothing can leak out. The disclosure agreement can be a formal document, with each participant signing off to indicate a willingness to abide by the terms of the agreement. Different levels of confidentiality are possible, depending on how individual participants feel about maintaining their anonymity. A participant may request that his name and business affiliation be withheld if some group findings are reported to people in the wider organization.

In addition to the disclosure agreement, participants work out their own ground rules for interactions during the PLC. Common rules include respecting each other’s differences, generous listening, and not interrupting when others are speaking. The process used by the institute involves time for reflection and discovery, and ground rules ensure that people will feel heard as they share their reflections. Participants agree to attend all of the scheduled meetings of the PLC. Board members who miss meetings can find themselves feeling they have been left behind; continuity is important.

At the first meeting of a PLC, governors identify ground rules, negotiate confidentiality, and choose topics or themes they want to see covered during the process. A schedule for future meetings is set. Facilitators administer a pre-survey designed by the institute. The survey creates a benchmark for participants to gauge their understanding of governance.

The next six meetings each cover a governance competency or dimension. The institute’s worksheets draw on the work of Chait, Holland and Taylor (The Effective Board of Trustees, 1993, and Improving the Performance of Governing Boards, 1996, Oryx Press). In the course of their reflections and sharing, participants deepen their understanding of the following aspects:

  • Organizational culture
  • Roles and responsibilities for board members
  • Promoting inclusiveness among governors
  • Encouraging experimentation and accepting ambiguity
  • Respecting, consulting and communicating with other parties who have an interest in the organization, and
  • Envisioning a direction and shaping strategy.

Each worksheet contains a set of questions for participants to answer individually. Facilitators then lead the group discussion and discovery that comes out of the initial reflection on the questions. The entire process for a meeting takes about 90 minutes to two hours. Participants report that the process of reflection, discussion and discovery can take a board to a whole new level in its work together.

At a final meeting of the PLC, the post-survey is administered and participants have the opportunity to reflect on their experiences. Typically, governors discuss how they plan to use their new learning going forward with their organization. The entire process is well-described in the book, Being a Governor: A Process for Board Development. It can be downloaded for free at: http://www.mtroyal.ca/nonprofitinstitute/governanceguide.pdf.

Professional facilitation

Seel is convinced that amateur facilitation is a mistake. It takes a skilled facilitator to manage group dynamics, administer worksheets and surveys, and make the most of the time allotted for a gathering. The institute’s PLCs always run with two trained facilitators. In a large organization, facilitators could be identified from other departments; in a smaller organization, it is more difficult to identify facilitators who don’t have direct ties to participants, and in this case, external facilitators should be considered. Yet another option for two organizations interested in running PLCs would be borrowing or exchanging facilitators from one another. As a rule, it’s best if facilitators don’t work with their direct reports.

Corey Olynik is a Calgary-based consultant with Executive Directions. As a participant in a PLC run by the institute, he marvelled at the level of candour and engagement between people holding differing perspectives. Olynik has previously served on boards of governance, but none has ever undertaken any training to improve its leadership competencies. His experience in a PLC with expert facilitation provided by Seel and his cohort, Anita Angelini, has convinced him of the value of this type of leadership development model for boards of governance. As Olynik explains, “People want to be effective. They recognize that dialogue with others in similar positions can improve their efficacy.” As a bonus, not only does the board become stronger and more cohesive, but the PLC process brings long-lasting personal insights to participants. It’s a win-win situation for everyone.

Andrée Iffrig is passionate about improving communication in organizations. She is the author of “Find Your Voice at Work: The Power of Storytelling in the Workplace”, and co-author with Keith Seel, Ph.D., of “BEING A Governor: A Process for Board Development”. Visit www.find-your-voice.ca for more information.