Organizational Structure

Setting Organizational Direction

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Originally Posted: June 10, 2009
Topics: 
Board of Directors

The board is responsible for defining and guarding its mission, setting the direction for the organization, and ensuring clearly-set values guide every decision. More specifically, the board has a key role in drafting the organization's mission statement that defines its fundamental purpose and reason to exist. This mission statement serves as part of the support mechanism for assessing how the organizational goals have been met and it defines the overall boundaries for course of action.

Secondly, through regular strategic planning - and adopting a board philosophy of continuous strategic thinking - the board prepares itself and the staff for the future. Organizational strategic framework provides a valid reference for annual operational plans that keep the organization on the right track and tied to the mission while incorporating necessary flexibility for action.

Values don't say what the organization does but how it will do it. Values define the moral and ethical principles and express the core ideology that the organization believes in.

What to do:

  • Draft a mission statement
  • Define organizational values
  • Conduct strategic planning every 3-5 years
  • Draft annual operational plans (staff)
  • Review and update/revise documents periodically - at least every two years

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