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Category Archives: Managing Indigenous Organisations

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What Does Your Vision Statement Mean?

What Does Your Vision Statement Mean?
Let me ask those of you who are Chairpersons, Directors and CEO's of Indigenous organisations: "Do you really know what your vision statement means?" Do you know what your organisation will look like when you have got there? How will your people behave in the future - do they behave as the vision statement imagines they might? I have been helping Indigenous organisations prepare strategic and business plans for decades. All too often, I see organisations with a Vision Statement that is printed in plans, brochures, documents and written on the "About Us" page of their websites. And yet, when I ask those questions, although people might say "sure, we do," they can rarely translate their vision into concrete steps and goals to help them actually work towards their vision. All too often the published Vision Statement is a nice set of words that don't mean anything in their work. I have to ask, why don't people make more of their Vision Statement? Why isn't their Vision Statement the ultimate goal of all planning and operational management? How do you make it so? (more…)...
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How Can Independent Board Members Add Value?

How Can Independent Board Members Add Value?
I recently had a very interesting conversation with my friend, an independent Board member of an Indigenous corporation that I consult to. I think he is a very valuable Board member, contributing sound advice from his experience of business in general, his knowledge of good governance practice, and from his personal knowledge of the pastoral industry sector that the corporation was in. Yet, in our conversation we spoke about how the corporation was not progressing, for a variety of reasons including the inability to resource enough talent as full time employees. He made the statement: "It's something I struggle with, how an independent Board member can actually add value to an organisation and not just 'advise' at a strategic Board level; and even more generally how a Board itself can add real value to the organisation." (more…)...
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Setting Remuneration for Directors of an Indigenous Corporation

Setting Remuneration for Directors of an Indigenous Corporation
Setting Board remuneration for a commercial company is relatively simple. There are a number of databases providing comparative remuneration levels that can be trawled and you can check with Human Resource Employment agencies. Setting Board remuneration for a Not-for-profit is extremely difficult because of the paucity of publicly available information. Multiply that level of difficulty by 10 for information about remuneration of Directors of Indigenous organisations. Trying to shoe-horn "median" rates from general surveys on samples of NFP's into your particular circumstances is so inappropriate, don't even try it. There are no set tables. So what steps can you take in setting equitable remuneration for Directors of Indigenous Boards? I can recommend 6 steps to take to set remuneration for Indigenous Boards. (more…)...
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Does Your Board Handle Change Well?

Does Your Board Handle Change Well?
Change is an inevitable part of life, and of the life of an Indigenous organisation. I ask those readers who have been through the journey of Indigenous organisations through the 80's to now to consider how the environment and climate around Indigenous organisations have changed. The change from grant-funded operations to Native Title negotiations; the change of Governments, government agencies and legislation affecting Aboriginal people; and the change from the Aboriginal Councils and Associations Act 1976 to the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006, and how that has "professionalised" the Indigenous Board from the old "Council" or "Committee". Change is the future - how future proof is your Board? (more…)...
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OTS Management