64. Don’t Fall for the Governance ”Hierarchy”!

SCRIPT Sometimes in classrooms or conferences where I might find myself mingling with or presenting to a blended audience of directors and executives from different sectors, I get a sense that there’s a perceived “hierarchy” of sorts in corporate governance where listed companies are somehow at the top and small charities or community organizations are at the bottom. Some of this manifests in a sense of “oh that person would never sit on our board – they’ve already broken through to the corporate world.” Or sometimes I’ll hear “when you’re with a listed company you have to be *really* good,” as though other organizations don’t need amazing directors and executives. But there are some indications that I find especially concerning. Let’s say I’m in a classroom where the participants are all executives and board members, I sometimes see representatives from large complex organizations’ eyes glaze over the moment they hear a story or example from an organization that’s “beneath” them in some way – EVEN IF IT’S UNIVERSALLY RELEVANT. Or maybe I’ll hear a volunteer board saying something like “well, we can’t expect our directors to commit THAT much time or energy, THEY’RE VOLUNTEERS!” When, of course, whether you’re a volunteer or not has no bearing whatsoever on your role, duty, liability, or potential for impact. I said before in episode 25 that different sectors have a lot to learn from each other. And honestly I find this subtle notion of a governance hierarchy to be really obnoxious.