Staff Meetings: Asset or Liability?

What do you talk about at staff meetings? I suspect that most of the time covers the minutia of daily activities. Thinking that this is building good communication among staff members, this practice could be a serious liability instead of an asset. If we must meet to share information of a routine nature, our organization could be in trouble. What happens if something happens to one of the staff? What is the repository of this type of information? How much does everybody need to know about what everybody else is doing?

As the foundation grows from one or two employees the challenges of everybody knowing everything become apparent. But the need for access to information grows with the size of the organization. Some of the most frequently asked questions I get include the following:

* How best do we get program staff to be aware of financial matters?
* Who should be able to talk to our donors?
* Which staff members should be talking directly to our board members?
* How many people should report directly to the foundation ED or CEO?

There are no single right answers, but there should be an intentional system for handling these common issues of foundation growth. Current leadership thinking suggests that a good leader creates an organization that can function effectively without them. And if that’s the case, what is the leader supposed to do? Does that thought bother or excite you?

Helen Monroe