The Work of Governing

Tom Peters is one of my favorite management gurus--he has been since I first met and heard him back in 1984. His recent definition of management go me thinking about the division of labor between governors (boards of trustees) and managers (the head and administrative team):

"'Management’ is the arrangement and animation of human affairs in pursuit of desired outcomes."

Exactly! But what then is the board's work? It is primarily the definition of the "desired outcomes" management will pursue; e.g., "'Governance' is the identification and delineation of the mission-congruent outcomes the organization (school) will pursue."Governors should engage managers in the outcomes conversation, just as managers should engage governors in a dialog about which paths to take in their pursuit, but trouble invariably happens when governors arrange and animate human affairs or managers identify and delineate outcomes. Staying within the lines is crucial here.[N.B.: Peters' manifesto linked above is a masterpiece and well worth reading beyond the quote.]