Board Governance Practices Inventory

Board Governance Practices Inventory

Price: US $15 each plus tax & shipping (12 for US $155 )

This 4-colour self-assessment inventory leads Board members through a detailed reflection on their personal stewardship practices, and their actions to ensure the sustainability and relevancy of the organization they govern. It incorporates standards and recommendations from Toronto Stock Exchange, Broadbent Report, USA's Sarbanes - Oxley Act, UK's Cadbury Commission, OECD, Germany's panel on Corporate Governance, CalPERS, Hong Kong's Laws & Regulations on Governance, NYSE/NASDAQ Rules, Proposed OSC Rules, Singapore and Japanese business groups.
The competency - based assessment identifies the frame-of-reference a Director brings to 25 key governance practices and their balance of focus across 6 key areas of governance work. [Network Scan, Relevancy & Community Engagement, Oversight, Perspective & Ethical Reflection, Risk Management, Diplomacy & Influence, Communication and Interpersonal Skills.]

Based on scores from various Board members, the Board can then have a discussion regarding how they might wish to adapt/improve various existing practices and processes. These can also be used as a preparatory element, combined with a few readings, for a Board retreat or workshop facilitated by Banff Executive Leadership.

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Core Competency

Frame A Practices

Frame B Practices

Frame C Practices

Frame D Practices

Risk Management

Ability to assess the organization's capital/asset status and risk, along with future investment needs.

Is able to read financial statements and operational reports so as to identify opportunity and risk. Raises concerns or issues when risks become clear and engages meaningful dialogue with Board colleagues on the risks.

Board works with CEO to develop status reports and briefing documents that consider:

Financial Assets
Human Capital
Structural Capital
Relational Capital
Customer Capital
Environmental Capital

Organization-wide practices in the planning process identify resource needs, "strength of capital" and current status/risk. These are fed upward to CEO and Board for consideration, prioritization, and investment decisions.

Investment/Donor community, Government, and local community are engaged to build collaborative relationships to enhance the asset capacity of organization. This is done through such elements as education system, social services & support agencies, Government tax policy, & economic development environment.

Organizational strategies are dearly prioritized for resource allocation -including termination of past strategies.

Has a clear sense of the organization's activities and priorities in all areas/ communities of operation.

CEO brings to Board plans, strategies and update information that reflects priorities. Board & CEO work together to re-prioritize and / or terminate operations as assets are affected/ threatened and as part of the annual budget and business plan process.

Organization and its sub-units work from a clearly enunciated multi-year risk/ investment strategy developed by the senior leaders. Priorities of sub-units are coordinated to contribute to/ not side track overall priorities and sustainability.

Clear understanding of industry sector pressures, client dynamics and community constraints inform the development of operational strategies, asset allocation and risk modeling over a multi-year perspective -to ensure viability of the organization.

Able to ascertain the organization's capacity to implement its strategy.

Is able to see that the business plan and budget are "connected" and appear viable.

Board and CEO discuss business plan and budget, identify risks and resource issues/ concerns. Board HR Committee may be in place to review compensation and Human capacity to achieve results.

Organization - wide strategic assessments are done regularly to ensure that the organization and its units have the capacity ( $, structure, people, technology, etc) to "deliver" the plan. These assessments are "fed" up to Senior Management & Board for further review.

Strategic, longer-term capacity of organization, sector and community is studied in order to maintain/invest in the resources required to advance the capacity to sustain both the organization and community.

Contributes to Board's responsibility for provision of strategic resources to CEO/ Management.

Personally contributes and /or works towards securing resources required by business plan/budget.

Board & CEO develop plan and various responsibilities are assigned for securing the $, technology, human and other resources required by strategic plan.

Clear organizational positioning, strategy, and goals create a dynamic pursued of both goals and resource development through out the organization.

Board and Senior Management are engaged together to work with government, founders, and community to ensure sustained access to resources that will support the organization's goals as well as the goals of the community.

Risk Management Subtotal:

Core Competency

Frame A Practices

Frame B Practices

Frame C Practices

Frame D Practices

Diplomacy / Influence Leverage

Is comfortable and effective at representing and "owning" the Board's position in public.

Will Contribute to dialogue and debate at the Board table, and will "own" the final decision publicly, without separating an independent opinion/position. If in serious disagreement with Board position, will resign.

Board and CEO dialogue effectively, examining many sides of issues. Consensus is generally achieved. Board & CEO are clear as to what is confidential vs, the public "position". All members of Senior leadership are able to clearly enunciate and support the Board's decisions.

Conflicts of interest are declared and handled appropriately. Official statements are communicated effectively through out organization. Board members are encouraged to network regularly with key stake holders to communicate the Board's interests/ decisions.

Board and Senior Management engage key community participation around major decisions, accepting their input for consideration. Board members are then deployed strategically to

Inform
Lobby
Build alliances
Engage others in support of the Board's decisions and strategies.

Able to build strategic relationships and/or partnerships on behalf of the organization/Board.

Brings a strong relationship and communication path way to/from the constituency they represent, or with personal network of friends/ business associates.

Governors act for the good of the whole -aware of and informed by representative points of view around Board table. Board members have a strong relationship with their network to inform, influence , and mobilize in support of Board decisions.

Board and Senior Management identify strategic partnership/ alliances required for success of the business plan strategy. Individuals of the Board are strategically deployed to build relationships and communication path ways with key stake holders -working closely with Management.

Board members along with Senior Management work in teams to establish and leverage relationships and networks with investors, donors, government, etc. as required. Partnerships and alliances are built for a win-win of the organization and the other partner/community.

Follows a criteria - based approach to recruitment, orientation and integration of new Board members.

Takes initiative to orient self, read background of organization and industry sector. Asks questions and pursues information required to govern and partakes in discussion in a knowledgeable manner.

Board and CEO have clear responsibilities for identifying and recruiting new Board members. CEO covers operational orientation/ reference. Board Chair or governance committee orients new members with respect to Governance model, roles, accountabilities and processes.

Board and Senior staff have a clear competency expertise/ representation grid for the make up of the Board. New recruits are sought out that will bring the requires expertise to the Board. Members are oriented effectively and clearly understand the contribution expected, committee service, relationships to leverage, areas of expertise recruited for. Governance committee is comprised entirely of unrelated / independent directors.

Board has developed an ongoing recruitments canning process and/or "farm team" of committee/ project members for whom future Board members can be drawn depending on the competency/relationship needs of the Board. Effort is made to engage diverse sectors of the community in order to bring talent from non-traditional resource pools, so that the Board is reflective of the community/ clients they serve.

Analysis I

Competency Frame-of-reference For Governance Practices

1. Add up the number of

marks from each column in the preceding pages.

Total number of

's from each column:

Total should equal 25

Yellow

Orange

Green

Blue

2. Create bar graphs of your scores for each colour below (you may want to add bar graphs of fellow Board members beside your own).

25
15
10
5
0
	Personal	Team-Analytic	Organizational-Systems	Community-Network
	Individuals scoring highly in the yellow zone bring to their Board role a focus on their own personal contributions to Governance. They tap into personal networks, their own experience and skill sets, their personal values, and their own interpretation of support materials, readings, conversations. This expertise and reference approach can provide strong personal contributions to the Board including special expertise, knowledge, and project work.	A high orange zone score highlights a Governance approach that facilitates contributions and insights from fellow Board members, CEO and senior management. This style attempts to lever all the strengths of the group members to achieve insight and decision-making greater than the sum of the parts. Individuals with an orange style will often seek to ensure group process is functional and the relationship/ communications between Board and CEO are maximized.	Governance practices in the green zone shows that the Director is actioning a systems-thinking approach and seeking information and insight both from inside the Board/management team and from broader organizational stakeholder inputs. This Governance style often seeks to institute organization-wide processes that bring forward key information from all parts of the organization to the Directors and ensure that Governance policies/decisions flow out successfully throughout the organization and to suppliers/contractors.	If your top score is in the blue zone you and your Board make decisions and take actions which ensures the organization acts responsibly within community and industry sector at large. Your Governance practices seek regular engagement of the wider community of clients, government and the public to ensure you remain relevant to their needs. You also use their input for continued innovation and strategic adjustment. This style is transparent and accountable to the larger community and also holds the CEO, management and employees to these transparency/accountability expectations.

3. Add up the number of

's in each column in the preceding pages. Circle the highest number.

Total number of

's :

The highest score represents the type of Governance style you would like to be practicing in the future.

Yellow

Orange

Green

Blue

4. Now, engage your Board in a discussion as to how you will close the "gap" or sustain current practices if there is no gap.