. “Do you know where your company is investing its resources? Most of the time, the answer is, not really,” shein her e-mail newsletter. Often organizations are loaded with what she calls “zombie projects,” things that once had a senior champion who is no longer there or revolve around ideas that seemed good at the time but didn’t pan out.set out
Rob Wood, who heads a Kingston consultancy I am affiliated with that works with small- and mid-size organizations in the municipal, university, hospital and social services space, has found them struggling with the need for new structures. “Some boards and CEOs are finding their old committee systems aren’t nimble enough for today’s environment – and perhaps they weren’t all that effective in the past, but no one noticed,” he. Some are moving to ad hoc teams struck for specific purposes.
Those are all big, weighty, complicated and potentially explosive issues. Mr. Hayhurst views board meetings as multiparty negotiations since the members will arrive with different perspectives on the meatier elements of the agenda. The board chair, of course, is the all-important mediator.