Let’s Ensure Governance Keeps Pace with This Moment

There is a lot on my mind right now.

First and foremost, of course, is the war in the Middle East where millions of our sisters and brother’s daily lives in Israel are disrupted as they seek shelter from rockets so they can stay alive. They do this while trying to navigate through their day, raising kids, taking care of the elderly and myriad other necessary tasks. They are built differently than me, with such unimaginable resilience. No article about Jewish life should be written during this war without acknowledging them. I hope they can soon return to their normal routines in safety.

What I write below may appear trivial in this moment, but something is pushing me to share these thoughts now. I have been thinking about them for some time.

I have written before about VUCA — volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity — and about the pace of change reshaping our world and Jewish communal life. In this environment, professionals have had to adapt. Many have. They have become more agile, more responsive and more comfortable making decisions in real time.

If the world around our institutions has changed so dramatically and so quickly, compelling our professionals to change, it begs a question: have the systems through which we govern our Jewish institutions changed as well? The answer, in many cases, is not nearly enough.

Jewish organizations spend enormous energy talking about innovation in programs, strategy and engagement. We spend far less time asking whether our governance architecture enables those ambitions or quietly impedes them.

Together, professionals and lay leaders need to build a culture in which governance is designed, not merely inherited, so we can navigate these VUCA times.

Practically speaking, this design process will probably include redefining committee charters, clarifying which decisions belong where, reducing unnecessary approvals, reshaping meetings around strategy rather than reporting, creating clearer lanes between oversight and execution and minimizing the distance between emerging reality and institutional response. In other words, it means treating governance as a living operating system, not a permanent artifact. Leading Edge is doing important work in this area via its Board Leadership Accelerator program and other workshops and resources it produces.

Read the full op-ed at eJewish Philanthropy. Barry Finestone is President and CEO of the Jim Joseph Foundation.