Give learning a seat at the board table
Strategic learning shouldn’t be viewed as a luxury for boards, it should be an integral part of the governance process
GOVERNANCE
Image: Istock
Ben Cairns
Co-founder and Director of the Institute for Voluntary Action Research (IVAR)
Issue 64 | February 2023
For boards in the charitable and social change sector, the development and oversight of strategy is at the heart of their governance function. ‘Strategic learning’ commits a board and senior team to a cycle of reviewing progress against aims, considering what has gone well and less well, and making adjustments to the delivery of strategy in the light of this intelligence.
A common set of challenges
Acting in this way, however, is far from straightforward. Challenges experienced in making the shift to strategic learning include:
An uncertain context
Social change work is messy, unpredictable, and involves testing, experimentation and adaptation – with no real guarantee of ‘success’. Yet staff continue to experience some trustees as lacking appetite when embracing uncertainty.
The purpose of learning
A lack of clarity and transparency about what a board wants to learn or measure, and why, makes it difficult for staff to know what information to collect and how to present it.
Data
A tendency to see quantitative data as superior to qualitative, as well as a lack of recognition for more diverse types of data, remains widespread.
Spaces and resources for learning
Finding the time to engage in learning can be a challenge, especially for those in small organisations.
Bringing strategic learning to life
To bring strategic learning to life in this context, trustees need to pay attention to three related tasks.
01
Articulating the meaning of learning
Articulating the meaning of learning is especially important given the tendency of many boards to default to a focus on narrow, quantifiable matters, and steer away from more open-ended, reflective conversations. When we talk about ‘learning’ at IVAR, we are talking about a two-stage process:
1. Collecting many types of data, including: formal evaluations, qualitative and quantitative outcome data, individual reflections and observations.
2. Converting that data into usable lessons and insights that will enable us to make intelligent and evidence-informed decisions about how to make the best possible contribution in a complex environment. Good learning leads to action.
02
Embracing the concept of ‘strategic learning’
The commitment of a strategic learning approach is to ensure the lessons that emerge from data will be timely, actionable, and forward-looking; and that a board and senior team will gain insights that will help them to make their next move in a way that increases their likelihood of success.
For trustees, the concept can help to reconcile concerns about a possible tension between formal governance and learning – a familiar tension, often predicated on an unhelpful notion that learning is, somehow, a nice to have luxury.
03
Recognising that how you do it matters
For this transition to work – giving learning a seat at the board table – trustees need to model different and consistent practices and behaviours.
That will need to extend to rewards and incentives which are often linked to things like KPIs and metrics, rather than, say, curiosity and experimentation.
Distinguishing between ‘the accountability space’ and the ‘learning space’ is also important, although ideally there is a feedback loop between the two. It’s a case of both-and, rather than either-or.
Reaping the rewards
The clear intention of strategic learning is to achieve a virtuous circle of problem identification, action, reflection and adaptation that continually strengthens the implementation of a strategy.
With a strong focus on so what? and what next?, a key measure of success as a learning organisation is the impact of learning on how an organisation deploys the various tools and approaches at its disposal to help achieve the change it wants to see.
About IVAR
The Institute for Voluntary Action Research (IVAR) is a UK charity that works with other charities, foundations and public agencies to strengthen communities.
Thanks to Carnegie UK for material used in this blog.
“The clear intention of strategic learning is to achieve a virtuous circle of problem identification, action, reflection and adaptation.”
