Conundrum 6
Frustrations as a NED

When you were appointed a Non-Executive Director of an NHS Trust about twelve months ago you were delighted at the opportunity to make a contribution to the local health service. You have been involved in community developments of various kinds for a number of years, have a strong network of local contacts, including local councillors, and feel very much in touch with local opinion. However you have been disappointed at the lack of opportunity to influence decisions. You feel they come to the Board at too late a stage for non-executive members to do anything other than rubber-stamp them, or reject them. The Chair has made it clear that the latter is taboo, and you are frustrated at endorsing decisions that miss opportunities, that do not make the best use of local resources and generally are not as good as they could be.

There is a board Away Day in the near future and you have just received the agenda. Yet another meeting where the executives will be ‘bringing up to speed’ their non-exec colleagues. Irritating. There is so much knowledge, experience and wisdom among the non-execs, and it could be so valuable if it could be explored and tapped into. You yourself have tried to make suggestions and have been told that ‘that isn’t the way things are done in the NHS’ Precisely! It might be better if they were, but you notice that no credence is ever given to other kinds of experience.

You have tried to raise your concerns with the Chair but to no avail. In your opinion she has ‘gone native’. All in all you are thinking seriously about whether to resign.

How can you reach a constructive decision? and what can you do to improve the situation?

Commentary 6

First of all it will be worth reflecting on why you chose to become a NED - really why. It won’t have been for the money, and probably only partly for the opportunity to influence events and services. You may be interested in recognition and reputation (and there is nothing wrong with that), and/or in the sheer interest of the decisions you make as a Board, or in developing your skills and your CV.

Being clear about your motives is a useful backdrop against which to consider your personal mission and the way you are using your time. Stephen Covey’ method for doing this is a good one: In the different aspects of your life, what roles do you play? What goals do you want to achieve within each of these roles? What are the most significant actions you could take this week that will make progress towards those goals? When are you going to undertake them?

If you do this regularly, weekly, you will not only become more effective, and feel more in control, you will also be able to see whether you are making progress. If you are, if you can take satisfaction in what you are achieving, then, even if you are not enjoying the process, you will probably decide not to resign. If you aren’t, and if you are not enjoying it either, you may well consider handing in your resignation. But before you do: how could you improve the situation?

The three rules may help, and in two ways.

First, you could discuss with your chair what it is you want to achieve as a Board member, and whether this fits with her expectations - so you align the two sets of expectations, yours and hers, (rule number 1). Then (rule number 2) you can discuss the skills and resources you need if you are to achieve those expectations, and this is an opportunity for you to discuss your reservations about the processes or behaviours you believe are impeding you. Finally you can ask for feedback (rule number 3) on your performance, using the guidelines for constructive feedback to prompt it in a form that is as useful as possible. As you receive this, you may hear that your attitude towards the other Board members is causing problems and you may feel aggrieved that your response to their behaviour is being interpreted in this way. You would do well to reflect however, on how your actions and behaviours are being seen, and on whether this is helping or hindering progress towards your objectives.

Second, you could think about how the Board as a whole could agree on what it is trying to achieve - not the organisation, the Board. On what skills and resources it will need, and on how it will receive feedback on its performance. You may be able to discuss this with your Chair, or you may want to consider how you could prompt this less explicitly, by asking questions, reflecting back and summarising arguments made.

You could also find out about Organisational Learning, and the behaviours described by Chris Argyris and Donald Schon as model 1 and model 2 behaviours. You may recognise that, as a Board, you are all engaging (you included) in model 1 approaches to problems, and that you would all benefit from a shift to model 2 ( again, you included 1).

Good luck!

Read more of Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change 

You can find out more about the three rules in Really Managing Health Care and about Organisational Learning in Developing Change Managment Skills.

Please send any comments and suggestions to
conundrum@reallylearning.com