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Comment by Jennifer Lentfer on May 24, 2012 at 8:12pm

Have you seen this blog series, Linda, on the Broker Online about the future of international NGOs? Really great stuff http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Blogs/Future-Calling-blog/

Comment by Bonnie Koenig on April 11, 2012 at 2:39pm

Linda -

Thanks for opening up this discussion. In my experience having worked with these issues quite a lot over the past few years, I have a few initial thoughts. There can be challenges with: 1) The governance structure itself (issues like north-south or HQ-field decision making authority as you noted); 2) The way structures are implemented (such as communication and feedback loops); and 3) Whether any one structure can still be effective at different stages of the organization’s life cycles (growth, etc…) Among important core elements are: 1) broad consultation and vesting of stakeholders (at key junctures and on-going) and 2) widely held values that are modeled in practice. When a wide group of stakeholders are part of the process, diverse perspectives and different alternatives can arise. But often what is left out is the time needed for two way communication with a wide group of stakeholders, and feedback loops and adaptative structures to incorporate input.

It would be interesting to hear what experiences people have had with the impacts (either positive or negative) of organizational structure on their work. It tends not to be governance structure itself that most people focus on, but more often the barriers/obstacles that structures (or their implementation in practice) may present to their accomplishing something they are trying to do..