Data has become an essential part of good governance. Boards need reliable information to understand financial performance, monitor quality and safety, assess organizational health, and fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities. Benchmarks and best practices can provide valuable perspective and help boards recognize trends, identify risks, and make informed decisions.
But data, as valuable as it is, does not tell the whole story.
Good governance requires something more: data + discernment + context.
The board’s role is not to manage the organization or second-guess operational decisions. That responsibility belongs to leadership. The board’s responsibility is to provide oversight, ask thoughtful questions, exercise judgment, and ensure that decisions are consistent with the organization’s mission and long-term well-being.
That means looking beyond the numbers.
Consider an organization whose staffing costs are higher than industry benchmarks. The data may suggest an opportunity to reduce costs. But what else should the board ask? Is the organization serving a population with more complex needs? Is the staffing model contributing to better outcomes, lower turnover, or stronger relationships with the people served? Are there ethical or mission considerations that make the comparison less straightforward?
Or consider program data showing that participation in a particular service has declined. The numbers may suggest that the program is no longer needed. But perhaps the decline reflects a change in how people access services, a shift in the community, or barriers that the data itself does not reveal. The important question may not be simply, “Should we continue this program?” but “What is happening here, and what do we need to understand before we decide?”
This is where the board’s discernment matters.
If your board is not regularly using data to inform its work, that is a governance opportunity. Decisions should not be based solely on anecdote, tradition, or the loudest voice in the room. Data can challenge assumptions and bring clarity to difficult questions.
At the same time, boards should resist the temptation to treat a spreadsheet as an answer.
Benchmarks tell us how we compare. They do not necessarily tell us what is right. Best practices offer valuable guidance. They do not eliminate the need to consider our particular organization, community, mission, or circumstances. And metrics can measure what is readily measurable while leaving out things such as trust, culture, relationships, dignity, quality of experience, and the deeper impact of the organization’s work.
At the next board meeting, consider asking:
- Do we have the right data that we need to consider our fiduciary responsibility?
- How are we using the data we have available?
- What assumptions are behind the current data and benchmarks that we measure?
- Are there ethical or mission considerations that the data cannot capture?
- Are we making the best decision, or simply the easiest decision to justify with numbers?
Strong boards do not choose between data and judgment. They bring the two together.
The goal is not to have less data. It is to use data wisely paired with curiosity, thoughtful conversation, good judgment, and a clear understanding of why the organization exists in the first place.
By Karen Lehman, President & CEO
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