The myth that trustees do strategy and staff do operations

Many times, when I have been a trustee and chair, I have had people tell me that trustees do strategy, and staff do operations. It sounds like a simple division and clear dividing line. But it is an entirely false mantra, and I have to confess it's normally staff who say it.

A decade ago, I remember one CEO parroting this mantra and telling me that trustees shouldn’t get involved in operations, and then a week later at a board meeting presenting a draft strategy. This black-and-white dividing line between trustee and staff roles is neither helpful nor constructive. Here are my four reasons why.

Staff should be involved in strategy.

One of the core reasons that the mantra is wrong is that staff can and should be involved in strategy.  Indeed, the idea that trustees would create a strategy without reference to staff is fantastical. Equally, the idea that trustees are only needed for strategy is equally false – if it were true, you’d only need a trustee board for a few months every three years or so. Strategy should be a joint project, co-creation between staff and trustees.

Trustees have to scrutinise operations.

It’s equally the case that trustees should get involved in operations – not to do operations (though in charities without staff they do, of course – see the next point) to make sure that it’s all working well. Trustees have to know about operations. They have to scrutinise operations. They have to be able to challenge and query how strategy is being translated into operations. Trustees have to make sure that operations are being delivered in a way that follows the strategy, and with an effective use of human and financial resources.

In the majority of charities, trustees do everything.

It's worth remembering that in the vast majority of cases, charities have no staff. There are only trustees. The trustees do the strategy, do the operations typically with volunteer help, and make everything else happen. Here is the challenge is not any demarcation line between strategy and operations, but making sure that the overworked trustees set aside the time for thinking about strategy at all.

Strategy and operations learn from each other.

The line between strategy and operations is blurred, not clearly demarcated. Strategy and operations are continually evolving and changing as results, evidence and activities develop organisational learning and insights. It is not a line but a circle that joins strategy and operations, and so both trustees and staff need to be involved in this virtuous circle.

More generally, is there a clear dividing line between what trustees do and staff do? In my experience, there rarely is. Charity governance seems to like to create golden roles, hard and fast ways of doing things. In my experience, each board need to decide for itself what works, and what doesn’t, following some clear principles. Dogmatism is rarely helpful in a world as diverse and idiosyncratic as charity boards.