Innovation: an optional extra or a governance go-to?

Posted on 13 Aug 2026

By 'Governance Guru' Nina Laitala, training lead, Community Directors

Innovation isn't just a buzzword, and it isn't just about technology. It’s a necessary part of ensuring that your organisation stays relevant as the world around it changes. An organisation that doesn’t adapt eventually stops being useful to the people it serves, no matter how sound its finances or how compliant its paperwork.

That makes innovation a governance responsibility, not an optional extra bolted onto the “real” work of oversight.

Of course, that’s easier to say than to execute. Most boards, particularly all-volunteer ones, are already stretched managing compliance, overseeing the finances and keeping an eye on operations. Where does innovative thinking fit in when there is barely enough time for the agenda as it is?

The answer is not to add innovation as a new item to an already crowded meeting. It is to build innovative thinking into how the board already operates. A board with genuine systems thinking, one that understands how decisions, risk, people and money all connect, will find it far easier to spot opportunities and respond to change than a board that works through issues in isolation.

Boards need to focus on two areas here. The first is making sure the organisation is open and ready to innovate when opportunities arise. The second is thinking innovatively about the core business of governance itself.

"If people cannot make mistakes, learn from them and try again without fear of blame, genuine innovation will not be possible."

Nina Laitala

Getting the organisation innovation-ready

Innovation opportunities rarely arrive on schedule. New funding streams, digital tools and partnership possibilities tend to turn up unannounced, and organisations that are ready to move can test and scale up new ideas, while those that are not simply watch them pass by.

Being ready starts with culture, specifically, psychological safety. If people cannot make mistakes, learn from them and try again without fear of blame, genuine innovation will not be possible. Pilots fail. Ideas do not always work. A board and an organisation that treats these experiences as evidence of a problem, rather than a normal part of trying something new, will tacitly train its people to stop suggesting anything at all.

Groupthink is another trap worth naming. When a board agrees easily and meetings run smoothly, it will feel comfortable, but that comfort often comes at a cost. If everyone in the room shares similar views and experiences, the board is unlikely to be considering the full range of options or opportunities available to it. Innovation depends on genuinely robust discussion, not unanimous nodding.

Boards should actively invite different perspectives into the conversation and make space for constructive disagreement rather than treating it as a distraction. If a board consistently agrees on most things, that is worth noticing rather than celebrating. It might be time to test ideas and decisions against external input, whether that is a critical friend, a sector peer, or even AI. Examine your thinking and look for angles the board might have missed.

Innovating from within

The second area is less about watching for external opportunities and more about how the board approaches its own core work. Innovative thinking is not reserved for special projects. It can, and should, be represented in the way the board handles the fundamentals of governance.

Start by looking for ways to innovate in these areas: Decision making. Are decisions made the same way they always have been, or is the board open to trying different processes, listening to different voices, and applying different ways of weighing evidence and risk?
Risk management. Is risk treated purely as something to minimise, or is the board also considering the risk of standing still and missing genuine opportunities?
Financial sustainability. Is the organisation open to diversifying income sources or trying new models, or is it defaulting to the funding sources it has always relied on?
People management. Are recruitment, roles and ways of working evolving to reflect how people actually want to contribute today?
Succession planning and board review. Is the board bringing in fresh perspectives and skills over time, or is it unintentionally recruiting the same kind of board members it has always had?

None of these areas requires a grand innovation strategy. They simply require a board willing to ask, every so often, whether the way things have always been done is still the way that serves the organisation best.

The bottom line

Innovation sometimes means a big, obvious shift – think of the way organisations had to reinvent themselves overnight during the pandemic. More often, it is incremental: a new digital tool, a different approach to a familiar problem, a willingness to sit with disagreement rather than rushing to consensus.

Boards do not need to add innovation to an already full plate. They need to build it into how they already think, decide and govern. A board that treats innovation as part of its everyday thinking, rather than a special initiative, will find it far easier to stay relevant, adaptable, and genuinely useful to the people and communities it exists to serve.

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