A Stranger in a Foreign Land

Bothered by some of the remarks, sidebar comments and facial expressions exhibited by a few trustees at a recent retreat, I dug out a 2013 quote from Dick Chait, the nonprofit governance expert at Harvard. Chait was speaking as part of a roundtable on governance issues convened by the Association of Governing Boards (AGB).

“The image I have is of a trustee who lands in London, rents a car, and then confronts a rotary. It is vaguely familiar, but backward. All of your instincts are incorrect. The best trustees say, “I’m going to learn how to drive like a native. The worst trustees shout, ‘why do they insist on driving on the wrong side of the road?’”

This is important, especially for entrepreneur or corporate trustees. The business of private educational institutions is vaguely familiar, there are employees and customers, and a lot of money changes hands, but in almost every way the culture and values are different. It is crucial that trustees understand the difference, see it in context as if they are in a foreign country, and learn to function within how it works. It is toxic to assume that one’s own culture is superior and that the correct behavior is to remake the school in its image.