BoardCompanions conference : Enhancing Non-profits' Impact through intersectoral partnerships

On October 21, 2024, we were lucky enough to organize our first major conference, with almost 70 participants and Pierre Gurdjian as keynote speaker. A wonderful evening, which delighted everyone.

Pierre Gurdjian shared with us 3 foundational principles, and 3 core foundational mindsets, which we're delighted to share with you.

Three Foundational Principles

1. Governance really matters.

Performance and purpose start at the board.

That is where Things get evaluated, stretched and legitimised.

2. Find ways to include different perspectives in the board.

In today’s world, there should be more collaboration across 4 spheres: civil, academia, private, and public

I have witnessed the horrible misconception of one another.

There are many stereotypes, yet each sphere is bringing its key strength

·       Private: You define your objectives and mobilise the resources to reach them

·       Public: These are the Policy makers

·       Academia: Of critical importance in times where truth is criticised

·       Civil / social: This is where the energy of creation is present. People team up around a cause

3. Governance is more than codes and rules.

It is about the most noble form of leadership: Influence, not authority.

It’s about being /  becoming, not about knowing

It’s a way of progressively acquiring different postures.

This Journey of ‘becoming’ is accelerating one’s own development process.

It’s a form of spiritual exercise.

Three core foundational mindsets

1. Quality of the perspective/ point of view.

Balance

At the heart of governance lies the necessity to balance different perspectives

·       Finding the right balance between short term and long term. 

·       Balancing the multiple stakeholders who all have legitimate

·       Defining corridors of purpose and performance, ranges of desirable and achievable economic performance that are still in line with the purpose.  (purpose also being defined in terms of where the organisation can really have impact). In order to secure the sustainability on the long term .. 

View from above.

You need to have a Holistic integrative view of the Issues, they are always complex at board level.  You need to have a 360 degrees view of all problems.

Stewardship

We are never owner of the title we have.   We receive a mandate from people who trust us. We will pass it on one day.   We need to give it back enriched with something that will be our legacy.  At the end of the day we need to express strong judgments.

2. Breadth of the Perspective

The breadth of the lifetime of the organisation is ‘Le temps long’.

·       History: Any entity started one day. We need to be aware of the historical journey of the organisation.

·       Context: Every organisation has a collective personality. We need to ‘understand’ it.

Today there is too often “amnesia”….

3. Life / discernment

·       Listening: the quality of what we do is determined by the quality of what we hear.

·       Asking questions: The value added of asking the right questions is super important.

·       Show up with your “whole life”, not only with your expert hat.  In other words, having discernment..

Concluding words

Each of those mindsets we can learn. It’s an individual and collective journey.

Board is not a panel of experts. It’s a community of men and women.