Governance
This section of the toolkit is focused on activities that will help you with planning how to establish, stabilize, and evolve sustainable governance for your program. It is designed to help you structure discussions and gain consensus about next steps for sustainable governance for your OSS program. It is not a toolkit
of tools for day to day governance.
Brand new to It Takes a Village in Practice? Check out our Getting Started Resources before jumping into the activities below!
Definition: A governance model describes the roles that project participants can take on and the process for strategic and tactical decision making within the project. In addition, it describes the ground rules for participation in the project and the processes for communicating and sharing within the project team and community.
Instructions
Brand new to It Takes a Village in Practice? Review the activities and goals below to select ones you want to use for sustainability planning.
These activities are designed to help you move from one phase to the next and can be used in any order. You can use any or all of them. Suggested persona pathways are outlined at bottom of page, but it is not expected that programs would do all activities. As you use them, we are eager for feedback via ITAV@lyrasis.org
Some beta testers have kindly provided samples of their work with activities. They are included below as available.
Suggested Pathways: You can use any of the activities in any order but we have designed some suggested pathways based on a few personas:
Pre-Work | |||
| These are activities that may be helpful if you haven’t already done strategic planning. | |||
A. Mission / Vision | Goal: To enable program governance to consider and create a Mission and Vision Statement if you do not already have one. Having a Mission and Vision Statement are helpful for many of the ITAV activities. Examples: Mission Vision; Mission Vision | ||
B. Strategic Priorities | Goal: To enable program governance to consider and create some high level strategic priorities if you do not already have them. These are helpful for many of the ITAV activities. | DOC | |
C. Who is Your Community? | Goals: To identify community stakeholders, consider goals for each stakeholder group, and prioritize community stakeholders This is helpful as pre-work, but also for programs in any phase. Note, there is a fuller version of this in the Community Engagement Facet. Example | DOC | |
Phase 1: Establishing Governance | |||||||||||
Phase 1 Objectives include: Define the Need for Governance; Review Existing Governance Models; | Selecting Select the Governance Model that Works Best Now, and | Communicating Communicate Changes to Stakeholders | |||||||||
1. Catastrophizing | Goals: Understand how the program’s current governance model (or decision making) works with unexpected issues; Understand if the model works well or has gaps; and Identify the kinds of and document issues that need to be solved. Note: This activity is valuable for any phase. Examples: Ideate, Prioritize, Gap Related Objectives: Define the Need for Governance | DOC | |||||||||
2. Governance Elements - Checklist and Planning ToolChecklist of Governance Elements | Goals: Understand the elements of various governance models, and determine which your governance structure currently has .and prioritize future elements. Example. Related Objectives: Review Existing Governance Models | DOC | |||||||||
3. Understand Understanding Governance Models and Process Impact | Goal: Understand the range of various governance models, how they function, and what they could mean for your own program. | ||||||||||
Goal: Understand program needs in terms of more or less formality in governance structure. | |||||||||||
Goal: Choose the governance model that most closely aligns with your program’s priorities and values. | |||||||||||
Related Objectives: Review Existing Governance Models | DOC | ||||||||||
4. Choose Your Own Governance | Goal: Enumerate the decisions for stakeholders, enumerate responsibility, match roles with decision making groups and validate governance model against scenarios. Related Objectives: Select the Governance Model that Works Best Now | DOC | |||||||||
| 5. Documenting and Implementing a Governance Structure | Goal: Finalize an initial governance structure Related Objectives: Select the Governance Model that Works Best Now | DOC | |||||||||
6. Articulate Articulating the Case for Change | Goals: Draft your communication strategy and communicate change to your stakeholders. Related Objectives: Communicate Changes to Stakeholders | DOC | |||||||||
7. Evaluate Communication Campaign Feedback | Goal: Evaluate how well your communication campaign was received. Related Objectives: Communicate Changes to Stakeholders | DOC | |||||||||
Phase 2: Stabilizing Governance | ||||
Phase 2 Objectives include: Document Existing Governance Practices. Evaluate Each Element of Existing Governance, Increase the Level of Community Engagement, and Evaluate Long Term Home Organization Options | ||||
8. Catastrophizing | Goals: Test resiliency of current model; Understand how the program’s current governance model (or decision making) works with unexpected issues; Understand if the model works well or has gaps; Identify the kinds of and document issues that need to be solved; and Document governance policies or decision making process.. Examples: Ideate, Prioritize, Gap Related Objectives: Evaluate Each Element of Existing Governance | DOC | ||
9. Pack Your Bags - Mapping Decision Journeys | Goals: Enumerate the strategic and tactical decisions the program stakeholders are faced with; Enumerate the paths those decisions take before they are finalized; For decisions that have no path, identify choke points, redundancies; and Identify gaps or areas of governance or program management that need improvement. Related Objectives: Evaluate Each Element of Existing Governance | DOC | ||
10. Financial and Organizational Stability Assessment Checklist | Goals: Assess the financial and organizational stability of your program’s governance, and identify gaps or areas of governance that need improvement. Related Objectives: Evaluate Each Element of Existing Governance | DOC- Activity DOC - Checklist | PDF Activity PDF - Checklist | |
11. Position Descriptions for Elected Leaders | Goals: Create, update, or confirm position descriptions for elected leaders; Help elected leaders and community members understand the roles and responsibilities of each position; and Facilitate succession planning. Related Objectives: Document Existing Governance Practices | DOC | ||
12. Create Creating Personas | Goals: Create more explicit stakeholder personas to help guide community efforts. Related Objectives: Increase the Level of Community Engagement | DOC | ||
13. Recognition and Contributions | Goals: Understand how the program currently recognizes contributions; Understand how recognitions recognition and contributions are incorporated into the program; Understand the kind of recognition that is most appreciated/motivating to each kind of contributor; and Discover how the program can improve in this area. Related Objectives: Increase the Level of Community Engagement | DOC | ||
14. Org Home Process: A) Requirements Gathering and Assessment | Goals: Determine if you need a new organization to provide organizational home functions; gather requirements for assessment and decision. | |||
Org Home Process: B) Core Values Match Assessment | Goals: Determine which values are important for your program to help with evaluation. | |||
Org Home Process: C: Program Services Evaluation Matrix | Goal: Determine which services are important in selecting a home organization for your program. | |||
Related Objectives: Evaluate Long Term Home Organization Options | DOC | |||
15. Five Elements Assessment | Five Elements Assessment [reformat? license doesn’t allow…] pretty complicated | Goals: Evaluate the program’s current governance structure, determine potential needs, and prioritize work going forward. Related Objectives: Evaluate Each Element of Existing Governance | DOC | |
Phase 3: Evolving Governance | |||||||
Phase 3 Objectives include Support Consistent Structures, Continue to Evaluate and Evolve Governance Practices and Expand | community Community Participation in Governance | ||||||
16. Succession Planning | Goals: Identify critical positions within your organization; Identify future staffing needs; Identify people with the skills and potentials to perform future roles; Develop action plans for individuals to assume those positions. Related Objectives: Continue to Evaluate and Evolve Governance Practices; Expand Community Participation in Governance | DOC | |||||
17. Continuing Education | Goals: Determine what information is necessary for Board members to feel invested, informed and engaged; Identify topics that inform Board discussions and decisions; Create a continuing education plan (schedule and content) based on those topics for Board members. Related Objectives: Support Consistent Structures | DOC | |||||
18. Catastrophizing | Goals: Test resiliency of current model; Understand how the program’s current governance model (or decision making) works with unexpected issues; Understand if the model works well or has gaps; Identify the kinds of and document issues that need to be solved; and Document governance policies or decision making process.. Examples: Ideate, Prioritize, Gap Related Objectives: Continue to Evaluate and Evolve Governance Practices | DOC | |||||
19. Representative Governance Assessment Checklist | Goals: Evaluate if governance structure is representative, prioritize any gaps, document or revise governance policies or decision making process, and devise a plan to make change to practices. Related Objectives: Continue to Evaluate and Evolve Governance Practices; Expand Community Participation in Governance | DOC - Activity DOC - Checklist | PDF - Activity PDF - Checklist | ||||
20. Expand Expanding Community Participation | Goal: Develop a plan to expand community participation in governance. Related Objectives: Expand Community Participation in Governance | DOC | |||||
Anchor SuggestedGovPathways SuggestedGovPathways
Suggested Pathways
| SuggestedGovPathways | |
| SuggestedGovPathways |
You can use any of the activities in any order but we have designed some suggested pathways based on a few personas:
- Post Grant: Your program has been grant funded for some time and you are looking to transition governance to a post grant configuration A, 8, 9, 12, and 13
- Newbies: You are new to governance structures and trying to decide what works best but need a bit more context A and 3
- Major changes: Your main stakeholder/decision maker has left and you are now looking to transition governance A, 1, 4, 6, and 7