Ten questions to see if your organisation's governance needs reviewing and improving.
- Everyone is pointing in different directions. There is no clear sense of direction. The organisation lurches from issue to issue. People have different ideas about what is important.
- No one is quite sure what we are for. It lacks a unity of purpose. Keeping going and surviving from year to year isn’t enough.
- The Chief Executive is rarely ever challenged. Things go through with little real challenge or constructive debate.
- It’s hard to see what the board achieves. What value or difference do board meetings make?
- The Board is of ornamental value. The board is stuck in a routine. It meets because it is required to do so. Discussions at committee meetings are predictable.
- The board just rubber stamps. Most of the work is about approving things that have already happened.
- The board’s membership is stale. It is hard to recruit new people. Key interests or skills are missing.
- The board is out of touch. The board lacks real connection with the work of the organisation. Members don’t have much understanding of the context that the organisation is working in.
- Strategy is just a paper document. Every so often a strategy or business plan is produced and agreed to. It then sits on the shelf and is rarely ever referred to.
- The board gets involved in the wrong issues. The committee micro manages issues. It gets too involved in detail and interferes. Delegation is confused.
Contact me to discuss how a governance review or developmental work might help to strengthen your board.