Board team identity

A one-day workshop

As a Board, you will be meeting regularly and each director will be bringing their individual knowledge to provide direction and solve challenges for the business.

And as a Board you will be expending a lot of energy on giving direction, solving challenges, achieving goals. But how often do you step back and question the way in which you operate as a team? Are you performing as well as you could? Are there ways in which you make heavy weather of it? Is the burden equally spread? Is just one agenda being pursued or are there several?

All Boards could do better. The best way of helping them do so will depend on each Board. This workshop is particularly effective when, for whatever reason, the individual directors are not all pulling in the same direction. Perhaps this is because there isn’t a shared purpose, a shared set of values. Perhaps it’s because of a lack of clarity about vision and mission. Perhaps there are misunderstandings and disagreements that never make it on to the agenda, that are crowded out by the day-to-day pressures on individual directors.

So, this session is an opportunity to look in the mirror. And to turn the mirror around, to attempt to see yourselves as others see you. And, in so doing, to identify ways of performing better as a team, not just a Board.

Learning objectives

Any Board that wants to transform itself from an assortment of talented individual directors into a top performing Board team.

This is very much a facilitated session, so a successful outcome requires the active participation of all those involved.

Who should attend?

This programme works best as a full-day session. Any less and discussion may be curtailed and you may feel that you have left the job half-done.

Format

This programme works best as a full-day session. Any less and discussion may be curtailed and you may feel that you have left the job half-done.

Special features

This workshop can – and should – be tailored to meet your specific requirements. The agenda below is intended merely as a starting point for a conversation with you about what you want to get from the session.

Meet the trainer

Alastair is a very popular and outstandingly capable facilitator. A highly experienced consultant with Board-level business experience he has professional expertise specifically in risk, change and project management, and consultancy skills. He is also a trained executive coach. He is highly effective at breaking down a business problem into its component parts and helping leaders to identify a path to success and recognise how they need to operate as leaders to navigate that path.

Agenda

This is an indicative agenda – a starting point for a conversation with you. We would be happy to tailor it to your precise requirements.

1 Introductions / scene setting

  • Why are we here today?
  • What do we all want to achieve?
  • What will be important to ensure we get the most from the day?

2 Beginning the journey to Board team identity

  • Are we a Board or are we a Board team? In what ways we do we operate as a team now?
  • What examples do we have of working well together?
  • What are some of our biggest practical challenges?
  • Board SWOT analysis

3 Board perception

  • How are we perceived by our staff and stakeholders? Both as individuals and as a team, as a team and as a Board?
  • How do we see ourselves now?
  • How do we see ourselves in the future?

4 Our board identity

  • Why does our organisation ultimately exist?
  • What is it here to deliver?
  • Who do we rely on for success?

5 Our vision for success

  • What’s our business’s corporate vision and mission? Have we articulated it effectively? Do we need to review it?
  • What are our corporate values? Do we need to review them? Are they embedded in the behaviours of the organisation?

6 What’s our current landscape and what are the drivers?

  • Internal and external? (Depending on context)
  • Who else is out there and can they provide a better service than us?
  • What are the implications for us?
  • How does change affect us and the organisation? Are we good change agents?

7 Added value

  • What is our added value as a Board? Added to whom?
  • How can we provide it?
  • Are we focusing on the right things?
  • Aligning purpose and value with strategy and execution
  • What consistencies in behaviour and performance must we demonstrate as a Board?

8 Review

  • What is our vision of ourselves and our future?
  • Do we have clarity about our identity and approach?
  • What are some of our immediate next steps?

For a no-obligation discussion about running this programme for your organisation on an in-house basis, just give us a call on 01582 463465.