Games, rules, women (on boards)

Rules for the game

Now comes the hard part...setting the rules for the game.

Objects of the game

The object of the game is to become a director before the other players. The player succeeds by achieving:

• notoriety
• authority
• power. 

These are achieved withies described in various stages as described in various posts:

• pre career
• early career
• mid career
• senior. 

This may be doe in various careers:

• law
• science
• financial services
• mining
• agriculture, fishing, forestry
• IT
• media
• politics
• pubic service

Each player chooses a career path, which I often fraught with barriers and challenges as well as offering unique opportunities. The success formula is left to the discretion of each player. So, there is an element of strategy and an understanding of risk. 

Equipment

The equipment for the game consists of a folding board, a pack of opportunity cards, a pack of barrier cards, 6 playing pieces, 2 dice, and a box of Kleenex (just joking). 

Paths

On the playing board there are paths to success based o one's education, the opportunities presented by a career, whether they get a mentor or later a sponsor. As in life, players will be diverted ono side loops sometimes as a consequence of their own poor strategic choices and sometimes for reasons out of their control. Some careers have more opportunities for earning notoriety, authority and power than others. 

Next: success formula. 

Older and better

Governance, Women and Leadership

The estimated time it ought to take to reach any kind of a senior level both with a national non profit and within a sector should be between 10 and 15 years, The game will give points to achieve this next step in 10 years although it will likely take 15 years, given the barriers thrown up as a woman tries to advance her goal to be a corporate director.

1. What opportunities have been realized over the length of the game, so far. Have mentors helped? Did sponsors come through? Did the player find either? Without one or the other, the player will stay stuck in a mid level loop. With both, the player will advance quickly through the 1st 2 levels.  
2. At this level within the sector (not quite C-suite ) the player will have developed a profile as a senior volunteer realized by being elevated to the position of chair of a national non profit. At the same time , she will be at least a senior VP within her sector. If she has advanced within the public service, she will be an ADM or a DM off either a Federal Ministry or within a large province (Quebec, Ontario, BC, Alta.) She may well consider herself mired in a  mid level position if she has a similar position in open of Canada's smaller provinces. 
3. She will have moved on from the ICSA Acc Dir program to being a mentor in that program. She will also have achieved the C.Dir.  designation through the Conference Board of Canada. If she does not get this designation, she may be able to get a position on a junior company within the TSX . Enough to be successful in this game but not successful enough to win the game. 
4. Professional achievement is important and she should be designated a Fellow, if she has a professional designation. If not, she may be awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree. If she has pursued a career in the media, she will have won several awards (Genie etc).
5. She will also be asked to advise a Senate Standing Committee on some topic. 
6. She will be asked at the early part of this stage to be on an evergreen list from one or another of the major executive search firms. 

So, we have moved the 5 levels for the game. The next step is to lay out the rules, then describe each step at each stage, then describe loops within each stage. This is the hard part!

Mid level: Women on Board

Mid-level: Women on Board

We continue with the game design for the Board Game: Women on Board.

What does "mid career " look like for those women who aspire to a corporate directorship? 

1. Leadership is the by-word at this level, especially as a volunteer on a non profit board. Remember, it is important to secure a board position either at a local or, preferably at a regional level. At this stage, the player should be positioned to have a position on the Executive Committee or at the least, on the Audit Committee. Year 1 at this level should position the player to be vice chair in year 2 and Chairman in years 4&5. 
2. As an entry level candidate, it is important to get known in one's professional association. Doing committee work, having a profile in educational events, taking part in the design of policy papers all enhance profile. With those successes in hand, the player is now ready to do a number of things with one's professional association. These include: chairing a key committee (policy would be nice); executive (would be better). These two leadership positions enhances the player's profile with the national association. Accomplish these in years 1,2&3 and then move onto the national scene for years 4&5.
3. Maintaining contact with the player's mentor is important. At this point, the player is positioned to recruit a sponsor the better to move her into sector activities. 
4. Now begins the broader approach of networking at national association events and perhaps connecting with the international scene. One's sponsor helps with this. The acquaintance established with key director search consultants will prove helpful at this level. 
5. To further enhance one's profile, the player actively solicits opportunities to represent the non profit at a national level, gives presentations on the national stage, writes articles for national newspapers, takes part in association webcasts. 
6. This is the time to begin to nurture political connections initially through representations at Senate select committees on behalf of the national branch of the non profit and with the national professional association. 

Tomorrow, we will take a look at the next phase... being the senior level. 

Entry level-women on boards

Entry level: Women on Boards

My Apologies

For those of you who have been following this blog, please accept my apologies for going dark for the last 2 weeks. A combination of problems struck including ice and snow...and problems getting another blog up and going. It was to have focused on pension governance. I failed for some reason to engage the platform properly. So, I will continue using this blog until I get the other one fixed. 

NBPSPP and Pension Governance

Some of you may have been reading about my views about the NBPSPP, its governance and their performance. After several weeks about writing about it, and having done my research, I have now reached out to them for an explanation about certain elements of their governance approach.

Three (3) days ago, I asked 4 questions:

1. How does the board define director/ trustee independence?
2. How does the board evaluate its performance? 
3. How does the board recruit new members?
4. How many independent trustees are? 

I expect that there will be an answer in a couple of days (this being Sunday in this part of the world). 

Saint John, smart cities and open data portals

I had also asked our city councillor about whether Saint John had considered developing itself as a smart city. IN previous blogs, I had reviewed both what a smart city was and how Saint John's open data portal might help inform that effort. My councillor had no idea how to respond to the question about smart cities and rather though that it had to do with a continuous improvement program. (well...it does, in a way...just not his). He let me know that the open data portal was being looked after by the IT department of the city.  Bad idea. Very bad idea. I got back to him with one definition of a smart city and a suggestion that many more people than the IT department needed to be involved in the development of an open data portal. 
I can see another blog developing here, linked to the show
#whatmattersmost . 

Anyway, lets get on with the main show. 

Entry level: women on boards

An entry level position places the player in the first 3-5 years of a career, the sights of which are focused on getting a place onto a corporate board. The goal of this stage of the game is to acquire: authority, skills, and a network. 

• The first step is to get a position on a volunteer board in the first year of a career, if she hasn't done so already.
• begin to attend the relevant regional and provincial conferences 
• in the second year on that board, start taking courses through an operation like Charity Village through its webinar series. 
• begin to attend the national conferences. 
• in the third year, enroll in the ICSA Acc. Dir course (3 days) plus exams in either Toronto or Vancouver. 
• attend ICSA annual conference
• find  mentor within the governance structures of either the volunteer agency association (at a national level) or the corporate secretarial association. 
• through your mentor, meet board search/recruitment consultants. Meet with them to determine what qualifications corporations may be seeking. The search consultants should be nationally recognized. 
• in year 4 begin to publish articles in Trustee magazine and in a professional governance journal like Governance (the ICSA journal) or Corporate Secretary,  (the US journal). Ask to make a presentation about governance at these conferences (ICSA, volunteer agency)
• in year 5, continue with the above strategies and start to look for a more responsible career position, one which will enhance your profile with the boards of the companies in your chosen industry. 
• At year 5, the player will also have wanted to upgrade her professional education. If, for example, she starts the game with an undergrad degree, she should have entered this phase with a post grad degree. In this phase of the game, she should have upgraded her qualifications by completing a certificate in risk management (distance ed'n through the U of T as an example). Taking a certificate through the National Quality Institute will give her extra points. Both will jump her ahead in the game. 

The next phase/stage of the game is mid career, which I will cover tomorrow.

Pre-professional

Pre-professional activities

The first phase of the board game Women on Board deals with the pre-professional phase of the player's career. It assumes zero career experience. The player might draw any one of 6 player cards which consigns her to those first steps in the board game. So, what might she do, besides finalizing her education and beginning to secure those necessary qualifications to enter the job market.

• attend informal gatherings of like minded early stage professionals interested in securing a directorship. Such gatherings might include alumnus functions, professional association functions, board of trade "meet and greets".
• link with the chapter of a governance association. Such groups as ICSA might be one such group with 40 chapters across Canada, ICS chapters (mostly in western Canada;
• attend conferences sponsored by these associations, sector specific conferences; 
• take on a volunteer experience as an entry level board member. 

Each of these can lead to continuous learning certificate level educational sessions. These would be identified in a side loop for the entry level candidate and although this might seem to slow the player's progress in advancing to the corporate directorship levels, they might lead to using opportunity cards which can advance them faster later in the game. 

Career Life Stages for Women

Career Life Stages

This is not going to be a blog with any deep meaning. The idea is to construct a board game wherein the issues women face in trying to become directors and senior board members. As noted in previous blogs, there are a few Board games which will inform this one. 

• Careers Board Game by Parker Brothers
• The Game of Networking
• The Game of Life

What do we learn from each of these games?

One's career is divided into 5 distinct, but in some cases , overlapping areas including:

1. Pre-professional
2. Entry level
3. Mid level
4. Senior level
5. Leadership

The goal of the game is to develop awareness of:

1. the importance of establishing clear career goals and staying focused on those goals;
2. establishing first contacts;
3.  career options as a director, and what careers might be best to enable you, the player to get a leadership position on a corporate board;
4. the best strategies to employ to help the player advance;
5. how to negotiate through certain steps when the player is presented not only with opportunities but also with barriers;
6. the best outcome for,  or solution to,  each challenge. 

This game would move the player through a number of different processes vital to career networking with other players. 

Think of Maslow's hierarchy of needs and put one's career in a similar pyramid. 

1.  Operational. So, the earliest step possible within a career trajectory.
2. Functional
3. From here a careerist might move in one of 2 directions depending on her qualifications, interests, experiences and expertise. She might choose a professional career path or a management career path.
4. If she chooses a professional career path, she might consider serving as an "expert" consultant in a particular sector or industry. This provides considerable career flexibility allowing her to move between sectors, including working at senior levels in the public service. 
5. If she chooses a management career path and depending on her interests, she may choose to be a manager (or at least go the supervisory route in her career). In which case she moves to a 1st line supervisor, mid manager, senior manager and then into the C-suite. Typically, this would keep her in one sector, one industry but not necessarily in one company. 

It is important to recognize that there are victory points along the way including:

• money;
• recognition within an industry, within a sector, within a company, within a profession;
• authority. In this latter, one may also get points for how she helps colleagues, mentors and , in some cases, sponsors (at later stages in the game. 

I'm stuck..help

Rate this NBPSPP

Why do I doubt that how the Board of NBPSPP evaluates itself is subject to any logical approach? I guess that it is because I haven't been told!?

So, a few questions which might fit into a self appraisal.

1. Do board members have job descriptions?
2. Were you given a job description when you applied and when you joined?
3. Which of these best describes a board meeting?

•  fun
• interesting
• boring
• too long
• too short
• about right
• move briskly
• move slowly
• most board members participate in discussions
• a few members tend to dominate
• members feel free to express ideas and opinions
• members are reluctant to speak up

    4. At either of the last 2 board meetings, did someone raise the question about the relevance of an issue to the Plan's mission?

    5. if a member of the staff (such as it is at Vestcorp) comes to you with a complaint, what do you do?

    6. Which of the following statements best describes the communications that the board receives from Vestcorp?

• too much info
• just about right
• too little info
• sometimes irrelevant
• unclear
• mixed
• we get info prefaced by a statement of purpose

    7. Which of these characteristics apply to a majority of board members?

• zealously committed to the Plan's mission
• loyal to the Plan and its best operation
• strong interest inboard activities
• probably concerned about the Plan and its mission but not overly expressed
• uneven display of interest

     8. The board has an annual work plan about what it intends to accomplish over the next year.

      9. Are minutes of the last meeting and an agenda for up coming meetings sent out in advance.

     10. Are board members generally knowledgeable about the issues confronting retirees and particularly about the changes in the social, economic and political environment in which they live?

      11. Which of the following best describes the climate of the board?

• cool
• stormy
• foggy
• cloudy with occasional showers
• clear and bright
• fresh breezes
• hot

This might be an interesting self appraisal for the board members, as a start...which is pretty much where this board is in its journey to effective governance evaluation. 

Next, a rating scale for board performance. 

What matters most to a Saint John citizen??(#whatmattersmost)

 Looking at the City of Saint John open data portal will emphatically not tell you who or what a local citizen is..or does. 

Compare this to , for example, Calgary or Toronto or Ottawa or Winnipeg 

• Calgary is (or was) oil hosting 63% of all petroleum engineers and 40%of geologists in N. Am.
• Toronto is home 38% of financial and investment analysts, 35% of securities brokers, 32% of actors and comedians, 30% of theatre workers, 31% of IT analysts in Canada.
• Ottawa is home to 30% of economists and 20% of policy researchers.
• Winnipeg is home to 12% of Canada's musicians and singers (although it has 2.25% of Canada's population. 

An open data portal might present what clusters persist or exist in Saint John encouraging birds of a feather to flock together. To encourage one group to cluster who might the city recruit to help?

• The university,
• the community college,
• the board of trade
• the provincial government??
• the feds???

How creative is Saint John society? What venues might the city foster to build this creativity? How do city leaders define creativity? 

Through:

• restaurants up town?
• performance venues
• clubs
• art studios
• music studios
• impact hubs
• sports clubs (amateur, semi pro, pro)
• Yoga coops, kickboxing clubs, bicycle clubs, canoeing/kayaking clubs.
• Political clubs (Politics is said to be a blood sport in the Maritimes. You could fool me with the really poor voter engagement at all levels , here).  

These are not easy questions to answer. But, questions are the first step to building an open data portal. 

#whatmattersmost is a creative environment. The nest post will start to focus how one might begin to build a creative hub.