Strongly agree with the critiques and suggestions here. Though, if I were writing it, I would say that "Poorly Governing Board are Weird". In my experience*, the issues described are not unusual in boards, but there are plenty of boards that do not exhibit these issues. I would call boards that consistently exhibit these issues "poorly governing". I have no idea what percentage of boards govern poorly (rough guess 30-70%), but I do know that there are lots of techniques for avoiding/correcting poor governance, including many you mention.

A few additional recommendations I'd add, which might be particularly useful for people who are setting up a new board (when you have the most opportunity to lock-in good practices) or who are on a board now and really want to govern well:

Control of the Board - Although it's true that most boards can only be fired by the board itself, it doesn't have to be this way. An organization's bylaws and articles of incorporation can be set up (or changed) such that other people can remove board members. This is especially common in a membership-based organization, but it can be accomplished in other organizations, too. Since boards are often unwilling to give up the power to fire themselves, best to do this from the beginning. But I have seen boards that voluntarily give other people mechanisms to control them. I have also seen employees rise up and successfully demand limits on the board's power.

Unclear goals - An organization doesn't just have to be guided by its mission. Organizations can create strategic plans and other types of goals and metrics that allow a board to assess how well the organization is doing in service of its mission. In fact, a well governed board would insist on and help create these goals and plans, and then hold the organization accountable for achieving them. Of course, strategic plans can also be misused or ignored. This isn't a perfect solution. But it's typically better than no plan.

Board assessments - In addition to the board assessing itself regularly, the board can/should require, and the staff and CEO should insist, that other people have the ability to assess the board. This can also be written into bylaws if necessary, or into a policies and procedures manual. The assessment could include staff, the CEO (especially if they are not a board member or are a non-voting board member), or anyone else who interacts with (or should interact with) the board. It's true that staff or others may not have much visibility into what the board does, and will have trouble assessing the board. But that in itself is useful to illuminate through a "360 degree" assessment. It can show ways that the board can be more transparent in its governance. Again, a board may be reluctant to allow itself to be assessed. But people setting up a new organization can mandate it in the governing documents, board members interested in good governance can create these reforms from within the board, and/or the staff or the organization's stakeholders can insist on it.



* I've served on about 10 (nonprofit and quasi-for-profit) boards over 16 years, have relationships with about 40 other people who have served on boards (mostly nonprofit, but some for-profit), and have received formal training in effective board governance from organizations like BoardSource

Agree that board hire impact could take some time to manifest. Though, in my experience (boards I serve(d) on and that my colleagues serve(d) on), we're bringing on a small number of directors every 1-1.5 years. So, I'd be surprised if it took 2-3 years for impact to be felt here. On a board with staggered terms for directors, typically every year there are directors with expiring terms. Some of those directors are renewed for an additional term. But it's also quite common for one or more directors to leave the board and create a vacancy every year.

Thank you for a great post. As another person in the experienced-manager-outside-EA group, but now moving more into this world as a manager, I would definitely be interested in a space to discuss management with other managers. I had a peer network like this in a previous management position, and it was quite helpful.

Hey Brian! I'll reach out to you on Slack, but just letting other Pittsburghers know that I'm here, too.

You might also be interested in this recent polling by Data for Progress* on likely U.S. voters' attitudes around farm animal cruelty. We found strong support across political ideologies for preventing farm animal cruelty. Note, though, that we did not ask about things like banning slaughterhouses.

https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2022/8/2/voters-demand-farm-animal-protections-from-both-politicians-and-companies

* I work here, but was not involved in fielding this survey.

I'm wondering if some of the difference of opinion in several comments are definitional. Can you clarify how you see liberal progressivism in comparison to liberalism generally? For example, as someone heavily involved in United States politics, I see the terms usually understood in the following way by my colleagues (and opponents). But this is not necessarily how they are used globally:
* Socialism = far left socially and economically
* Liberal progressivism = progressivism (the phrase liberal progressive isn't used by most politically active citizens) = solidly left socially and economically
* Liberalism  = Center-left socially and economically (although historically has been used where progressive is used today)

It looks like the new link has also expired. Can you post an update?

You might be interested in the polling that Data for Progress has recently done on longtermism among U.S. voters (disclosure: I work for them). The organization is interested in EA (we've attended EA Global several times), have a substantial polling infrastructure that is lower cost than our typical competitors, and routinely run repeated surveys on the same questions to track trends over months to years. Feel free to reach out if we could be helpful!

It seems like another value of non-dedicates is that they can help communicate EA to people who might not be exposed to it from dedicates, or who might not be receptive to EA messages coming from dedicates. Non-dedicates may have relationships, credibility and knowledge in non-EA spaces that gives them a measure of impact that dedicates won't have. That seems  useful for spreading EA's reach, and, hopefully, impact.

Hello! I'm Kyle, based in Pittsburgh, U.S.A. I am an interdisciplinary researcher and communications professional, also with significant experience in United States and United Nations policy. I am only a few months old to the EA community. However, I have been working for most of my career so far in EA-adjacent efforts in climate change. I currently work for myself in that field. But, in conjunction with career counseling with 80,000 Hours and others, I am job hunting for an explicitly EA position, ideally in AI safety/alignment. I would love to connect with more people in this community! You can find my LinkedIn, professional website, and other contact info in my profile.