The Four Pillars of Cooperative Governance!
About the Pillars
Cooperative governance is all about guiding the vision of the Co-op toward success. It’s about stewardship of a community-owned asset and answering the big questions about roles, responsibilities, expectations, and accountability.
Within a co-op, regardless of role, everyone gets to hold responsibility for working together effectively, for being accountable, for empowering each other. We all help each other remain focused on purpose and we’re all responsible for ensuring a healthy democracy. Since we’re all a part of “The Circle of Accountability,” our staff, our board, and our owner-members are all connected. The board is responsible for steering the direction of the Co-op, making key decisions, working together for common goals— but The Four Pillar model and its intentions apply to every role within the Co-op by providing some guide-rails to our thought and action.
In order to properly care for our community-owned shop and answer the questions of running it, we need both big picture guides and specific skills & processes & tools. This is where the pillar model helps guide board thought!
The Pillars
Teaming
Teaming is about successfully working together to achieve common purpose. This is the most obvious component. It’s all about learning together and being able to maintain a supportive group culture - even when there’s disagreements or places to grow.
Accountable Empowerment
Accountable Empowerment is about successfully empowering people while at the same time holding them accountable.
On behalf of the owners, a board delegates power - to each other and to the general manager. A powerful board and a powerful GM are an ideal combo of support and community focused growth.
Accountability is maintained and vigilantly preserved by having clear expectations, assigning responsibility, and checking in. We ensure accountability through a Policy Governance model which structures role clarity, accountability, and focus.
Strategic Leadership
Democracy
Strategic Leadership is about successfully articulating the cooperative’s direction/purpose and setting up the organization for movement toward that goal.
Strategic leadership is about defining purpose and setting direction. How can the cooperative most effectively meet owner needs? How can it distinguish itself in the marketplace? What should the co-op achieve?
Boards need to be able to learn and build wisdom together in order to develop foresight and make informed decisions. Boards need a way to free up board agendas to focus on strategic thinking and have a process for building the knowledge pool.
Democracy is about successfully practicing, protecting, promoting, and perpetuating our healthy democracies.
Democracy in cooperatives is about more than voting. A healthy democracy gives owners opportunities to meaningfully participate in reflection and change in their organization. All owners have the right to participate in the co-op regardless of their wealth, investment, or patronage. Owners are entitled to information, voice, and representation, and boards must understand the diverse needs of their owners.
The board is challenged to build alignment & shared understanding among owners about choices the co-op needs to make. Ownership and democracy are at the heart of what makes a co-op different from other businesses! Take part in this process and run for the board!