A Brief Introduction to Better Boards for a Better World

This short essay includes the Introduction and Advance Praise from Better Boards for a Better World:  An Integrated Practice of Policy Governance® and Servant-Leadership, by John P. Bohley, Jr. and Larry C. Spears (2023, BookBaby Publishing).  244 pages.  $35.  ISBN 978-1-66789-954-1.  Better Boards for a Better World – a daunting challenge. In the pages that follow, we will describe an approach to board governance that we believe will enable boards to unleash their potential to become better boards and to make significant contributions to the creation of a better world through embracing Policy Governance and servant-leadership. Our approach involves bringing together the comprehensive system of board governance called Policy Governance that was developed by John Carver and the constellation of core values embodied in the servant-leadership concept articulated by Robert K. Greenleaf. Policy Governance provides the logical governance framework promoting efficient, effective, accountable governance while servant-leadership provides the altruistic values that can drive the system. You might say that Policy Governance is the head while servant-leadership is the heart of the powerful synergistic approach to board governance that we are envisioning. While the “head and heart” analogy may be somewhat of an oversimplification, it is helpful in understanding what we see as the major contributions of Policy Governance and servant-leadership to the approach that we delineate in this book.  Our hope is that you will be able to find in our book guidance that will assist your board and other boards to unleash their potential for governance excellence and to make significant contributions to the creation of a better world through an integrated practice of Policy Governance and servant-leadership.