Thirteen tests of excellent governance – tough questions to provoke action in the boardroom
“Best? That’s not good enough! I want better than your best, I want sheer unadulterated brilliance.”
42nd Street
This HQN toolkit will help housing association, ALMO and TMO board members assess how effective they are at governing their organisation. Our aim is to ask the correct questions to provoke an honest examination of what is going well and what needs to be improved. There are rarely uniform right and wrong answers to these questions. Your answers matter less than the action which follows.
Suggestions for using this toolkit
- Complete the questionnaire individually and honestly – you could do this quickly at first then come back to reflect on your views
- Meet up and share the results with other board members – this could be done at an awayday
- Discuss the reasons for differences constructively – re-consider your views
- Think about how you need to change or develop
- Think about how the board needs to change or develop – make sure the areas which scored poorly in the questionnaire get tackled
- Work together on an action plan for the board overall and for you personally
- Complete the questionnaire again after, say, three months – has the board improved? Are your contributions better?
Further guidance on what to do after completing the toolkit is given in the Next steps section.
Click here for help from HQN
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