Category Archives: Organizational Development

by Jini Stolk Why is undergoing, or undertaking, a job evaluation so often unnerving? An organization whose board I serve on recently gathered the best written materials, advice and personal experiences we could find in order to make our annual CEO evaluation positive and productive. We started by discussing and agreeing to the process, which […]

by Jini Stolk I’ve recently been thinking that boards should be paying more attention to their own succession planning – as a way of ensuring “new freshness, new ideas and new energy.”  This thoughtful article from the Newsletter of the Canadian Federation of Friends of Museums lays out why boards must take responsibility for their […]

by Jini Stolk One of the joys of writing a blog is that the debate never has to end. I don’t mean that literally, of course. The April 1 Civil Debate on Boards, co-hosted by Praxis Theatre and the Theatre Centre, was a spirited, thought-provoking discussion among people passionately interested in how arts organizations should […]

by Jini Stolk It’s always valuable to look at things from another ‘s perspective, so I was eager to hear about the board experiences of five community leaders from culturally diverse backgrounds, at a DiverseCity Onboard event on March 20. The panelists, whose discussion you can follow here , spoke about the power to create a […]

by Jini Stolk I was recently at a meeting called by the Maytree Foundation to discuss diversity (or the lack therof) on arts boards, where we were asked:  How is your sector organized? What a surprising and difficult question! Slowly, people started speaking:  the community includes professional and community arts; there are the creative, presenting […]

by Jini Stolk I’ve recently been part of a hiring process for an organization I’m involved with. Looking at current job listings I see that many of you are in the same boat: starting the year hoping to find the perfect person to complete your staff team. According to management guru the late Peter Drucker, […]

by Jini Stolk I was listening hard at a recent meeting as Ontario Trillium Foundation board member Dev Sainani spoke about the board’s involvement in the foundation’s recent strategic review. Our work, he explained, was to help the foundation set direction and carry out its priorities; look at its impact; help create a strategic focus; […]

by Jini Stolk The huge response to my post When should a board fire itself – and to numerous other posts, tweets, and facebook comments on Factory Theatre’s firing of artistic director Ken Gass – is another indication of how forcefully a board’s actions can reverberate throughout the community, eliciting anger, questions, fears and, unfortunately, […]

by Jini Stolk We’ve all been reminded, following Ken Gass’s abrupt termination, that a theatre company’s board has the legal right to fire its artistic director. We’ve had less discussion about how and under what circumstances this legal right becomes the right thing to do. Creative Trust has spent many years looking at how the […]

Canadian Dance Assembly has a day of terrific workshops coming up: Financial Management: Building a Strong Bottom Line Date: May 17, 2012 Time: Noon – 2:30 pm Technological Innovation: On and Off the Stage Date: May 17, 2012 Time: 3 pm – 5:30 pm Financial Management: Building a Strong Bottom Line Date: May 17, 2012 […]