The board of directors is central in a co-operative business. The directors need to be able to make good decisions to ensure the co-op remains healthy, and they should work to improve their knowledge of the business and how best to run it.
Understanding where a board is performing well and where it has shortcomings is important. It will help the board figure out what it can do to strengthen its ability to make good decisions. A great strategy for a board is to do an evaluation of its progress and capacity.
This is an exercise boards can use to evaluate themselves in a planning session with all directors or with an expert consultant.
On a scale of 1-5 (with 1 being ‘Very Poor’ and 5 being ‘Very Good’), rate the board’s performance on the following:
Identify the top three to five challenges, opportunities, or issues the board should work on right now:
Issue 1:
Issue 2:
Issue 3:
Issue 4:
Issue 5:
Build on these three issues by filling out the following table:
For more information check out The Common Share podcast. Episodes 3 to 7 deal with different aspects of board governance:
Episode 3: Why we need governance
Episode 4: Getting people involved in board governance
Episode 5: Working board versus Policy board
Episode 6: Dealing with conflict on a board
Episode 7: The importance of board diversity
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