Powerful Profitable Conversations at Board Level
Never more than now has the spotlight been played so brightly on the effectiveness of Boards. So, what do you need to do to ensure that your board is performing to the best of its ability? Most boards regularly revisit systems and processes of governance. Don’t waste all your efforts here. That’s not what makes the real difference. Years of working with boards have led us to conclude that putting the spotlight on board behaviours and relationships is what separates outstanding Boards from average Boards.
So where should you put your attention? In our view the best places are:
- Board member competencies, skills, behaviours, attitudes and beliefs.
- Relationships within the Board.
- Board culture.
- The tone that the Board sets for the organisation.
- Board member commitment.
You can take your board from:
We will help you:
- Define or refine your vision for the Board.
- Create alignment around that vision.
- Assess where the Board is now against your vision.
- Create a Board Development Plan and individual Board member development plans that will take you to that vision.
- Facilitate the Board to sharpen up its performance.
Based on our extensive research into high performing boards and outstanding board members we have created simple tools and processes that can be customised to your needs and the particular context of your organisation.
- Diagnostic questionnaires.
- One to one and small group conversations using appreciative Inquiry techniques.
- Real time board observation and feedback sessions.
- Facilitated Board Dialogue.
We work a little differently to most governance and board development consultants. We:
- Provoke the boardroom conversations that lead to meaningful change that sticks.
- ‘Hold your feet to the fire’.
- Name the ‘elephants’ in the boardroom.
- Confront any unhealthy patterns of behaviour.
- Ask the questions that provoke your greatest thinking.
- Enable difficult truths to be surfaced and handled in a compassionate way.
- Model the behaviours of highly effective board members.
We do this in a way that provides real benefits for your board and the organisation including:
- Increased board effectiveness.
- Improved governance and strategic leadership.
- Board members who are fully engaged and take full responsibility.
- Revealing and tapping into the unknown potential of your board.
- Improved collaborative working.
- Meaningful performance measures for your board.
- A tailored Board Development Plan.
About the Consultants
Catherine Thomson and Margaret Williamson bring to Boards both an in depth understanding of good governance and effective board behaviour borne out of many years’ experience of working with boards in the private and public sectors. Much of their work is based on their own proprietary research into what makes an effective board and the competencies of outstanding board members and they are continually updating that research. They have personal experience as non-executive board members and Chairs and as senior executives in the financial services sector. In addition, Catherine and Margaret are highly skilled and experienced in organisation development in complex organisations and have over the past year been learning and practicing the art of dialogue facilitation in a formal development programme designed and facilitated by Dialogix Ltd, one of the UK’s leading providers of Dialogue. Their ability to bring together Dialogue with the more conventional skills of strategy development and governance review is a key strength.
Their approach is different to most governance and board development consultants. In essence, they work in the following ways:
- Provoking the boardroom conversations that lead to meaningful change.
- Ensuring difficult truths can be surfaced and discussed in a compassionate way.
- Holding your feet to the fire.
- Creating healthy tension.
- Naming the ‘elephants in the boardroom’.
- Bringing lightness and humour.
- Exposing ineffective behaviour patterns in the Board that are also in the organisation.
- Asking the questions that will make the greatest difference.
We are a partnership of two consultancies specialising in board development. We are experienced non-executive directors and experts in awakening people to their full potential.
Call us now to arrange an informal, no obligation, conversation about how we can help you improve the quality of your boardroom conversations and the effectiveness of your board.
