The people who need governance training the most are often not the ones in the room.
This was my takeaway from attending Te Amorangi – Māori Governance Summit online this week. This was a fantastic opportunity to hear from leaders about their governance experiences, and about what governance is and what it is not. One phrase that resonated and was mentioned throughout the day was from a speaker who said, “I’m preaching to the converted.”
What do we do when the people who most need the training, are not in the room?
I’ve heard this same frustration in governance conversations over the years. The people who turn up to governance training are usually already the ones fully engaged — positive, hopeful, leaning in, and learning. They ask the questions, reflect on their practice, and try to understand what good governance looks like beyond just turning up to a board hui. And I’m proud of our community for that. We turn up. We’re engaged. We’re learning. We have had an amazing response to our Good Governance Code workshops, with hundreds registering for each governance session. That tells me what is important to our community sector: we are people that care.
But the hard part is this: the people who sometimes need the training the most, are not always there.
The people who show up and keep learning are strengthening their governance training, and strengthening their communities. Those who may need the training the most often stay away, and that creates risk for boards, organisations, and the people they serve. Honestly, in the conversations I have, it is often Chairs who get mentioned. Not all Chairs, of course. But sometimes it is the person who has been there the longest, or the Chair who thinks governance training is for newer board members, or who says, “I’ve been there, done that.”
Well, the world has changed.
Good governance is not about relying on what we knew five or ten years ago. Governance is future focused, it’s about scanning for risk and opportunities and understanding what is moving around us, and most importantly, what this may mean for our organisations, kaupapa, whānau, and communities.
If we have our head in the sand and think nothing has changed, who are we serving?
In our Good Governance Code workshops, the conversation has already turned to AI, artificial intelligence (AI), data governance, machine learning, ChatGPT, cybersecurity, and cyber breaches — all new challenges and opportunities. When the Code was first developed by our community five years ago, none of this technological language came up. This is what they call a game changer.
Times have changed, and you cannot be ahead of the game if you are not participating in the conversation.
These are the difficult conversations already landing around board tables. They are not conversations we can simply hand over to experts, tech agencies, or billionaires to design our future for us. We need to understand enough to ask good questions, make good decisions, and protect the people and communities our organisations serve.
Investing in your learning and governance skill set, matters.
Not as a tick-box exercise, and not as something one board member does on behalf of everyone else. It matters because the people who turn up, show up, and keep learning bring the biggest benefit back to their communities.
So, if you’re not in the room, are you really leading?
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