June 30, Medford Tribune: “ ASHLAND — Peace House board members have laid off the agency’s top staff, citing conflicts with a collective management structure. Three staff members — Linda Richards, Grady Boyd and Stuart O’Neill — have been invited to reapply for new positions in a reorganized agency headed by an executive director. ‘The board has decided that the current conse’sus structure has made communication and decision-making difficult," said Joe Flaherty, one of three Peace House board members who confirmed the decision Wednesday.”
Having served on a number of non-profit boards it’s pretty easy to read between the lines here. For some reason, Peace House decided to attempt to operate with a peace troika and it didn’t work. Obviously, the three people charged with managing the operation couldn’t make peace with each other. Couldn’t communicate; couldn’t agree. Things have to be pretty bad in a non-profit for the board to step in and “dismiss” all the top staff. (Normally, non-profit boards are managed quite well by the staff and since the the board’s investment is totally altruistic, they often don’t really care exactly what’s going on. Some people just like to go to meetings and belong. So, the Peace House board should be commended for moving so quickly because this means that board members are going to have to pick up the slack until they hire a new Exec. Director). The dismisals demonstrate how difficult a challenge Peace House faces on a daily basis. Making peace isn’t easy. Peace is a lot to hope for at home or at work. And operating by concensus with co-Directors is a difficult management structure. At some point someone has to have the ability to step in and say, “This is what we are going to do.” Properly, the board of Peace House has decided to do just this, but with a pretty nice job of spinning:
“They (the Board) emphasized that the three staff members performed well during their consensus management tenure, which began about a year ago. A lot of good things came out of it, which might not have come otherwise," said Flaherty, citing expansion of volunteer ranks and several key programs. Along with autonomy, however, came problems with authority and shared decision-making. ‘It became clear that we needed a more traditional structure," said (board member) Dragomir.’”
Hopefully, Peace House will find peace soon so they can move ahead, telling others of the importance of peace. It’s a sad little story of failure.
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