A focus on meeting ‘machinery’ could imply ‘a victory of process over substance‘ in board decision-making. My experience in a range of government, corporate, and non-profit settings however, tells me that getting your decision-making systems into good working order is a key success factor in supporting substantive board decisions. Something as simple as structuring your… Continue reading From Proposal to Decision – your meeting ‘machinery’
Tag: deliberation
The case of the troublesome homograph
Confusion sometimes arises in our non-profit governance and management work where a word we use is assumed to have a particular meaning, but actually another meaning is intended. I think a case can be made for that to be the case with regard to the terms “business use case” and “business case“. Here the word… Continue reading The case of the troublesome homograph
Blockers or Enablers? The 3 lines of defence
Just as strategic mindsets can be framed in polarised pairs like Growth Vs Fixed, or Solution Vs Problem Oriented, risk management mindsets can also be described as Blocking or Enabling (see header illustration). While reducing any complex matter to a simple binary choice can lead to distorted thinking, when considering your risk mindset it is… Continue reading Blockers or Enablers? The 3 lines of defence
Filters and Factors in Deliberation
Deliberation – where strategic and personal perspectives meet. We directors and executives all like to think that we are rational beings, engaged in objective decision making processes to achieve governance and management goals. All of our best practice models describe linear and logical steps we take (or aspire to) to optimise performance and meet our… Continue reading Filters and Factors in Deliberation
The shared purpose mirror: Ideal decision and execution triangles
It has been widely recognised that good governance decisions involve identification of the ‘sweet spot’ where cost, risk, and benefit trade-offs can be achieved. A ‘mirror’ set of balancing factors is involved however when management is charged with implementation of those decisions – as illustrated above. Best practice strategy execution requires management to identify the… Continue reading The shared purpose mirror: Ideal decision and execution triangles
‘Ratio’-nal thinking in the boardroom
“… terms like ‘reasonable’ and ‘rational’, which are often used when describing the desirable qualities of board deliberation, are about the capacity of the directors (and management) to use sophisticated data and analysis i.e. ‘ratio’-nal thinking.”
What’s the motion?
“… the sooner the meeting has a proposal framed, the sooner debate can focus on what the meeting agrees to”