Balancing time allocated to board tasks is yet another challenge for the board that requires compromise – between enough attention to rightful detail, and tipping over into meddling in management, for example; or between devoting enough time to well-informed planning, and investing so much time that plans far outweigh results.
For the board, governance and planning are very closely intertwined, and should take up the vast majority of board time – board members are not there to actually do the doing, but to think about and decide what others should be doing.
On that token, we’ve posted here before about the importance of planning, but recent requests from diverse organisations have prompted us to update our ‘governance wheel’. It has very much proven its worth in shaping board discussions about the annual round of planning, helping to avoiding that becoming endless, and nothing like sufficiently productive.
For ease of reference, we have updated our short paper that includes the governance wheel – enjoy it with your coffee!