Social Capital Journal

I his legendary article, “Organizational design, fashion or fit?”, Henry Mintzberg described the interaction between the external environments and organizational structure – and how organizations must adapt their structure to handle environmental pressure.

As explained by Dave Snowden, an increasing number of industries are facing complex and dynamic environments, which according to Mintzberg would drive organizations towards adhocratic structures with a high degree of decentralization and coordination based on mutual adjustment.

Mintzberg and Snowden – coming from very different backgrounds – seem to have reached the same conclusion. When enviroments turn complex and dynamic, organizations need to respond by reflecting this complexity and dynamism in their structure.

However, many organizations seem to retain hierarchical and bureaucratical structures,  based on the need for economies of scale and managable spans of control

Networking and involvement are powerful tools by which organizations can benefit from the strengths of adhocracy – while at the same time retaining the formal structure required.

How good is your organization at stimulating networking and involvement?

Most boards meet three to six times a year; prior to each meeting they get a deck of papers including an agenda that comprises reports, information items and specific topics for discussion and decision. The only real innovation in board work for the last 50 years is the fact that papers are now available electronically – and most board members don’t even consider that a step forward since they now have to print everything before reading and going to the meeting.

Why not involve boards in a different fashion? Why restrict board meetings to only a few times per year? Why waste half of the meeting or more with reports and presentations for information? Why not use precious meeting time for discussion and interaction rather than passive listening to presentations?

It can be done. In the board of the World Scout Foundation, we have constant interaction during the year for the last three years. With 24 members from more than 20 countries across all time zones, we interact asyncroneously through an internal board blog where reports are posted and commented upon as they appear and where board members inspire each other through reports and observations, not only in text format but also as photos and video clips. The outcome: the Foundation now raises three times more funds than three years ago.

Sounds terrific, but it is not as easy as it sounds. Setting up the blog is two percent of the work. The 98 percent is to involve board members and staff in learning a new mindset for involvement and collaboration. Don’t expect that you can jus sit back and wait for other to involve you. You need to get involved. You need to learn what sort of information is relevant and well siuted for sharing. You need to ask for reactions. Just to mention a few aspects of a new mindset. But if you and your board gets it, the sky is the limit. Imagine the value of the collective intelligence of your board members and key staff. WOW!

Do you know an example of a board that has learned this new mindset? Share it with the rest of us on the blog.