Kerry - Very well said!
ho Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Dr. Potomac, MD 20854 USA 189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer) Camden, Maine 20854 Phone 301-365-2093 (summer) 207-763-3261 www.openspaceworld.com www.ho-image.com (Personal Website) To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST Go to:http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Kerry Napuk Sent: Sunday, May 20, 2012 5:42 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [OSList] who governs the governance? Hi Harrison One thing we can be sure about is there was poor governance in financial services in America and Europe. It is abundantly clear that the checks and balance involved in good governance went walkabout. My guess is that non executive directors, whose most important role is to challenge management and make them justify their actions, involved, what we call in Britain, PLU (people like us.) Moreover, fees paid to non executives have skyrocketed, adding more reasons not to rock the boat least it jeopardises incomes. The whole point of having governance in the private sector is to achieve balanced decision making in the best interests of the business. Among non profits, it would be in the best interest of beneficiaries and in the public sector, the best interests of citizens and taxpayers. Large organisations inevitably get more and more remote from the coalface. And directors in boardrooms can forget the purpose of the organisation they are suppose to govern. Good governance depends on diverse decision makers with individual responsibility and accountability. Above all it needs to exist in an environment where opinions can be expressed freely and issues openly debated. I am reminded of Theodore Zeldin's statement in AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF HUMANITY: "Conversation demands equality between participants. Indeed, it is one of the most important ways of establishing equality. Its enemies are rhetoric, disputation, jargon and private languages, or despair at not being listened to and not being understood." Openness and transparency ought to be standard currency in all governance. However, when a small number of people meet behind closed doors, the voices who need to be heard are often excluded. This is why large group processes like Open Space are critical to allow people to discuss burning issues where everyone are equal participants. Cheers Kerry Edinburgh
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