Difference, discord, debate and diversity are not the ingredients of a ‘happy’ team. Happy teams are often echo chambers of group think, each member comforted and reinforced by the other. We all love to be agreed with.
Brilliant boards are not happy teams in that warm, comfortable way. They are edgy, uncomfortable and no one is quite certain where each issue will land. Every view is open to challenge and the loyalty and ‘benefit of the doubt’ that supports you as an Executive doesn’t count for much here. These are the themes of this edition of The OE.
We start with an article from Gary Ashton and Mark Goodridge on the ‘triangle’ of board behaviour and set out the OE Cam framework for developing the skills for more effective conversation. We then have a guest contribution from Dr Scarlett Brown who draws upon her research to explore diversity and difference and how measures are only a start. Scarlett asks the question – is now the time for a double-jump? Our third article is from our Chairman, Mark Goodridge, who addresses a question many Boards face – how, as a non-executive director, can I assess the culture of the business? (when so often culture is deemed to be a significant contributory factor in business failure). Finally one of our Associates, Ian White joins Gary Ashton to look at board dynamics in a Regulated sector and how having an additional stakeholder influences the way in which the Board has to operate.
What we don’t address here are the process and procedural ingredients to a brilliant board. Our view is that these are already well defined, well discussed and relatively easy to determine and improve. The difficult bits are the behaviours and the relationships…
We hope you find this edition useful and, as ever, we look forward to hearing what you think.
Martyn Sakol