According to Team Technology, the terms groups and teams are often used interchangeably, although there is a distinct difference between them. Groups draw their members from a social community, whereas teams come together with commonality as a shared goal. In defining those terms separately, boards of directors are defined as being a team. The success…
In July of 2016, thirteen of the top corporate CEO’s issued an open letter to the public entitled Commonsense Corporate Governance Principles. Despite the diversity of the group and varied opinions on specific principles of corporate governance, the group felt it was important to find some common ground at the highest level of corporate structure. Commonsense Corporate Governance…
Imagine that a board member is doing research about improving his or her participation on a board of directors. As part of that research, the member discovers some valuable articles about board self-assessment and becomes intrigued about using self-assessment tools to improve the performance of the board as a whole. With great excitement, the member…
When a board member accepts a new position on a board, it’s rare that the board member knows exactly what to do and how to do it. Active board members will get up to speed quickly on their own, but there’s no question that a strong orientation primes new board members for their duties. Regular…
Only about half of boards use a formal, written self-assessment tool to evaluate their board’s effectiveness. That number is surprisingly low considering that doing self-assessments can be the catalyst that takes a board from stagnant and boring to vibrant and thriving. Non-profit organizations may think they don’t need to perform evaluations on the board or…
On the surface, it may seem that board members don’t need any training. After all, they were likely recruited to join the board because of their knowledge and expertise of the organization and its business. Yet, no one can know everything that there is to know about a business or organization, especially in the fast…
Face-to-face meetings are gradually giving way to video conference and teleconference meetings in nearly every business realm, including board meetings. There’s no question that saving time and money has contributed to the popularity of holding board meetings in virtual space. A Gigaom Research report stated that 87% of remote users see videoconferencing as a benefit…
Board meetings can become pretty routine, but that does not mean that planning for them should be completely routine. Most meetings will tackle looming problems, identify future opportunities, and spark new ideas. While it’s important for a board meeting to have a solid structure, it should also have a little flexibility built into the agenda…
It’s a well-established fact that boards should strive to build a board that has diversity of gender, culture, ethnicity, age, and other demographics. It is also well-supported that boards should have a diverse array of expertise, knowledge, and talent. Despite best efforts to create a well-rounded board of directors, boards often benefit from experts that…
When it comes to the culture of an organization, it’s hard to fool the public. A healthy public image is often a sign of good corporate governance. The aftermath of the bankruptcies of major entities such as Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco sent a fury through the financial industry. The shock of their demise sent plenty…
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