Is the board working effectively as a team?

‘It’s like starting from scratch at every board meeting. There’s no sense of a work in progress and some board members just can’t keep up. We have to go at the pace of the slowest.’

Disgruntled association board member

‘Keep the six that hate you away from the five that haven’t made their mind up yet.’

Jock Stein, Scottish football manager, sets out the rudiments of team building

‘There’s no ego in the Stones, they just play the music.’

Jack Nitzsche, producer of many Rolling Stones classics, explains to aspirant English rockers Graham Parker and the Rumour that if they want success they need to work as a team. The band followed his advice and ‘for the next nine days, checked our egos at the door’ – their first big hits duly arrived.

Press accounts of the collapses of Northern Rock and Erinaceous Group (providers of maintenance and insurance services to social housing) frequently overlook just how strong the boards were as individuals. Derek Wanless brought a lifetime’s experience of banking to the board of Northern Rock. Erinaceous benefited from Nigel Turnbull, the chair of the Turnbull Committee, which drew up guidance for company directors on internal controls. What could possibly go wrong? Most housing association and ALMO boards have some exceptionally strong players, but are they effective as teams?

  • Does everyone contribute at board meetings? If not, why not?
  • Does the size and composition of the board work well? When was it last reviewed?
  • Does everyone regularly attend board meetings? If not, what happens?
  • What is done to stimulate team work? Are there training and team building events between board meetings? Do these work well?
  • Do certain individuals dominate at the expense of others? What is being done about this?
  • Are board members spending enough time in advance preparing for meetings? Is time wasted by board members asking questions that could have been sorted out before the meeting? Do some board members ask needless questions because they have not read their papers?
  • Are board members contributing fully or are they stuck in silos? Do the council nominees reflect only the council position? Do tenants speak up only about where they live? Do professionals restrict themselves to their areas of expertise? Is the training programme helping to widen the contribution of board members?
  • Have relationships ever broken down on the board? What was done about it? How will you limit the risk of it happening again?
  • Does the chair bring people in and encourage useful contributions?
  • Do board members ask sharp questions? How well do the senior staff respond to these challenges?
  • Is there an agreed annual plan of board agendas to ensure that key matters like HR strategy, financial planning and asset management get fully discussed?
  • Is everyone treated with respect at board meetings?
  • Does each board member have a job description? Is the board appraised individually and collectively on at least an annual basis? Are independent experts involved? Are records kept? What action flows from these appraisals, eg, personal development plans for individual board members?
  • Are certain individuals kept on the board just to keep the peace?
  • Do you look forward to board meetings?
  • What would make board meetings better?
  • What has been improved in the last year due to the work of the board? Have services to tenants got better? Were the terms of a deal sharpened?

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