Ikigai - Governing Board’s New Work: Mission and Identity
Organizational Ikigai - Week 2
By Rick Aman onWithout a clear sense of identity, organizations drift toward whatever is easiest or most rewarded — Margaret J. Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science
In working with governing boards, most mission drift does not happen because leaders lose sight of purpose. It happens because good intentions accumulate faster than clarity. New programs are added, partnerships are approved, initiatives stack up, and before long the organization is busy, well-meaning, and unfocused. The board is doing its job, but the institution’s identity has quietly blurred. This is where Ikigai becomes especially powerful at the governance level. Not as a feel-good exercise or a strategic retreat activity, but as a disciplined lens for decision-making. When used well, Ikigai helps boards protect institutional identity, prevent mission sprawl, and elevate the quality of boardroom conversations from operational review to generative leadership.
Ikigai as a Board-Level Discipline
Boards are uniquely positioned to steward identity. Unlike management, they are not responsible for day-to-day execution. That distance is a strength. It allows boards to ask questions that cut across programs, budgets, and structures and get to the deeper issue of who the organization is and is not meant to be.
Ikigai provides a simple but demanding framework for this work. When applied at the board level, it asks trustees to continually test decisions against four framework realities: What the institution is deeply committed to, What it does exceptionally well, What the community truly needs, and What can be sustained financially over time.
When these elements are aligned, identity is clear. When they drift apart, confusion follows. Used this way, Ikigai is not about inspiration. It is about discipline. It gives presidents and boards a shared language for saying yes, for saying no, and just as importantly, for saying not now.
Preventing Mission Sprawl
Mission sprawl is one of the most common challenges I see in higher education and nonprofit governance. It rarely shows up as a single bad decision. More often, it is the result of many reasonable decisions made without a consistent identity filter. A grant opportunity appears attractive. A partnership seems aligned with a neighboring institution. A new program promises growth. Each decision, evaluated on its own merits, makes sense. Taken together, they stretch leadership capacity, dilute focus, and strain resources.
Ikigai helps boards slow this pattern down. It gives trustees permission to ask a different kind of question before approving something new: Does this strengthen who we are, or does it simply add activity? Does this sit at the center of our purpose, or at the edge of our capacity? Boards that adopt this posture begin to shift from expansion thinking to identity thinking. They stop measuring success by how much the organization is doing and start measuring it by how coherent the work has become.
Clarifying What to Stop Doing
One of the most difficult governance responsibilities is deciding what to stop. Boards in conjunction with presidents are often far more comfortable approving new initiatives than sunsetting existing ones. Yet clarity of identity requires subtraction as much as addition. Ikigai makes this conversation possible without turning it into a critique of effort or history. Programs and initiatives can be honored for the role they once played, while still being acknowledged as no longer central to the institution’s purpose. The question is not whether something was valuable. The question is whether it still belongs at the center of the mission today. When boards use the four frameworks of Ikigai as a reference point, stopping becomes a strategic act rather than a reactive one. It creates space. It reduces noise. And it signals to the organization that focus is a form of leadership, not a failure of imagination.
Improving Generative Board Conversations
Many boards spend much of their time in fiduciary and operational review. This is necessary work, but it is not sufficient. The most effective boards also engage in generative conversations, discussions that explore meaning, direction, and long-term implications.
Ikigai naturally elevates board dialogue. It shifts conversations from reports to reflection. Instead of asking only whether a program is performing, boards begin to ask whether it belongs. Instead of focusing solely on metrics, trustees explore alignment. Instead of reacting to proposals, they frame them within a shared understanding of identity. I have seen boards become more confident, more engaged, and more strategic when they adopt this approach. Trustees stop feeling like passive reviewers and start acting as stewards of purpose. The quality of questions improves. The tone of meetings changes. And decisions gain coherence over time.
Testing New Programs Through an Identity Lens
When boards evaluate new programs through Ikigai, the conversation changes immediately. Rather than asking whether a program is innovative or marketable, trustees ask whether it fits. Does this program reflect what we do best, or does it pull us into unfamiliar territory without clear advantage? Does it meet a genuine community need, or simply follow a trend? Does it strengthen long-term sustainability, or create hidden dependencies? These questions do not slow innovation. They sharpen it. Programs that survive this level of scrutiny tend to be clearer, stronger, and better supported once launched.
Evaluating Partnerships with Greater Clarity
Partnerships can accelerate mission, but they can also blur identity if not carefully considered. Boards often approve partnerships based on opportunity rather than alignment. Ikigai offers a way to evaluate partnerships without defaulting to enthusiasm or fear. Trustees can ask whether a partnership amplifies the institution’s strengths or compensates for weaknesses in ways that create long-term risk. They can examine whether the partnership deepens community impact or distracts from core commitments. When boards use Ikigai in this way, partnerships become intentional extensions of identity rather than tactical arrangements.
Framing Strategic Priorities
Strategic planning often struggles because organizations confuse priorities with lists. Ikigai helps boards narrow focus by grounding priorities in purpose. Rather than asking what the institution should do next, boards begin by clarifying who the institution is becoming. Strategic priorities then emerge naturally as expressions of that identity. This approach reduces initiative overload and creates alignment across leadership, budgeting, and execution.
Identity Matters More Than Optimization
In times of disruption, organizations are often tempted to optimize. Improve efficiency. Streamline processes. Do more with less. These efforts matter, but they are secondary. What matters most in uncertainty is identity. Organizations that know who they are can adapt without losing coherence. Those that do not will optimize themselves into irrelevance. Ikigai helps boards anchor leadership in identity rather than activity. It provides a steady reference point when the environment is volatile. And it reminds trustees that their highest responsibility is not oversight alone, but stewardship of purpose.
A Closing Reflection
If you have more than three priorities, you don’t have any. — Jim Collins, Good to Great
As you prepare for your next board meeting, consider this simple shift. Before approving something new, before debating metrics, before reviewing performance, pause and ask: Does this decision strengthen who we are? That single question, asked consistently, has the power to transform governance. Ikigai can be considered risk management for identity, a concept boards increasingly care about.
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Aman & Associates partners with governing boards and CEOs to protect organizational mission and identity before strategy and initiatives are set. Using an Ikigai-based framework, we facilitate focused board and leadership sessions that sharpen decision-making, reduce mission sprawl, and support long-term sustainability. As this year closes and another begins, a brief board or leadership retreat can be a timely moment to reaffirm institutional identity. Aman & Associates offers a short, half-day Zoom session designed specifically for organizational Ikigai alignment. If this approach would be helpful for your board or leadership team, DM me on LinkedIn to explore next steps.
Rick Aman, PhD Aman & Associates
Futuring | Strategy | Board Development rick@rickaman.com | rickaman.com/articles