The times require school boards to function in new and different ways. For a school board to be effective it must spend considerable time understanding the nature of the issues facing the board before any problem solving or decisions are finalized. Strong organizations use understanding and knowledge to increase the organization’s capacity to create the future it desires—if a board wants to hold a significant stake in the leadership of a district it must promote and engage in sound analytics and generative thinking.
ECRA Group works with educational board leadership and top administration to appraise board effectiveness and improve board function and relations, enabling districts to improve operations, foster open communication, and ensure positive community relations. ECRA methodologies can help educational leaders:
- Appraise the performance and effectiveness of the board
- Identify key challenges facing the board and organization
- Develop a shared vision for the board
- Clearly define and promote the understanding of policy, protocol and leadership roles
- Target areas for improvement in board function
- Develop effective communication techniques to improve board relations
The ECRA Board Model is unique in that it explores the relationship between both generative engagement, collaborative processes such as planning and problem-solving activities that employ inquiry and consensus-building to create or evaluate solutions that fit the needs of stakeholders, and empirical engagement, use of organizational data and information to make judgments and decisions regarding strategy and problem solving, thereby more clearly defines the board role in management of the organization. Our solutions define and assess governance functions, strategic decision-making, and execution functions in order to guide improvement of executive leadership.
