Governance as Coordinated Design in Complex Nonprofits
The Reality We Rarely Say Out Loud Nonprofits are expected to solve society’s hardest problems. Their missions are expansive, urgent, and morally compelling. Staff carry this work every day—navigating complexity, constraint, and consequence in real time. The stakes are high, the margins are thin, and the work rarely pauses. Boards, by design, engage episodically. A few hours a month. Often through reports, approvals, and oversight rather than sustained engagement with implementation. This is not a criticism of boards. It is a structural reality. And yet, we routinely expect transformational outcomes from governance systems that were never redesigned for the scale, [...]
Why I Write About Governance, Leadership, and Systems
I write about governance, leadership, and systems because I spend my days inside them.
