ABSTRACT
This chapter explores what is special about foundations: their unparalleled autonomy and the concomitant benign fallibility syndrome. Autonomy allows them to address complex problems, to deal with controversy and contestations, to accommodate changing performance yardsticks and shifting interpretations, to navigate situations full of conflict, uncertainty, and unanticipated consequences – and to do all this without losing their potential innovative edge. The benign fallibility syndrome lessens the capacity of foundations to realize their potential and leads to the performance enigma. It tilts foundations toward satisficing by aiming for achievable goals as initial objectives become problematic, and they tend to engage in self-justification when accounting for results. Ultimately, ambiguity of outcome becomes symptomatic as foundations build up inertia until change or renewal happens through, for example, changes in leadership.
