The last word: Never forget the basics
By:
CSBA President Martha Fluor
Published: November 15, 2011
Anyone who has worked with me during my years on CSBA’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee knows that there is rarely a time when I don’t have a Starbucks iced tea (specifically, a Venti Black Iced Tea, Unsweet, No Water, Extra Ice) nearby. My colleagues on the board and staff are so used to it that there is often one waiting for me when I enter a meeting room!
The other day, I was thinking about the similarities between what has happened at CSBA during my presidential year and what occurred at Starbucks a couple of years ago. If you’re not familiar with the story, in 2008 Howard Schultz returned to Starbucks as CEO and quickly came to the realization that the company, though highly successful, was trying to do too much and had lost sight of what it did best. Under his leadership, the company actually closed all of its stores for one day, provided its employees with additional training and additional resources, and began a process designed to reinvigorate the entire operation.
Although there are obvious differences between our two situations, I believe that what we’ve been trying to do at CSBA bears some similarities to what Mr. Schultz did at Starbucks. Consider the following key components of the “Starbucks strategy”:
Never forget the basics. For CSBA, this means ensuring that the work of the association is fully aligned with our Vision and Mission, as well as the strategic priorities adopted by the Board of Directors, the Policy Platform, and the strategic directions of our staff. I’m pleased that we’re fully engaged in such alignment work at several levels, including the blueprint to guide CSBA that Executive Director Vernon M. Billy is working on with the board and staff.
Give customers a voice in your redirection. For CSBA, you can replace the word “customers” with “members.” And again, we’ve gone to great lengths this year to ensure that CSBA members have a say in the future direction of your association. Earlier this year, I wrote about our ongoing initiative to review and redesign all of our training programs, with the goal of ensuring that the curriculum we offer meets the needs of board members, whether they are brand new or veteran members. The first step of this process was to conduct a needs assessment, and in addition to engaging the entire membership via a survey, we held focused group discussions with the CSBA Delegate Assembly during its May meeting. This work will continue in the year to come, and there will definitely be additional opportunities to provide input as the process moves forward.
Reinvigorate corporate responsibility. This has been a key tenet of the board’s work this year, as we have continued to discuss and implement the recommendations contained in last year’s report on fiscal and governance issues. There remains work to be done, but we have also made tremendous progress. In fact, I am hopeful that the work will not end when we finish our work on the review. There are many long-standing structures within the association that are ripe for discussion and perhaps modification, and I’d like to see the creation of a long-term Governance Task Force that analyzes and discusses the roles of the Executive Committee, board, and Delegate Assembly; as well as practices such as the means by which we develop our Policy Platform. We are already doing things much differently than we did before, but again, there remains work that could be done.
This is my final column as president, and as many presidents before me have said, I can’t believe that it’s gone so quickly. There was a lot I wanted to accomplish in my year, and a lot of it we just never had time to get to. But that’s OK, because it wasn’t exactly what you’d call a normal year. I think we accomplished a great deal, not the least of which was hiring a new executive director, and that we are in good shape for the road ahead. Thank you for all of the support this year, and please stay in touch!
Martha Fluor is president of the California School Boards Association.