Board Dynamics

The days of boards recruiting directors for their names only are long past, and director responsibilities have grown exponentially in recent years. Board Dynamics: How to get Results from Your Board and Committees has been updated to offer practical advice on how to make boards run more efficiently; how to have productive meetings; how to communicate with each other and management constructively; and in general how to become more engaged in the governance process. Complex interactions of the board as a whole are more than just the sum of their parts: this handbook looks at the "moving parts" as well as the whole of the system that is corporate governance in action.

Among the duties of effective boards:

• Improving management's plans by asking divergent or challenging questions
• Recommending new business contacts to management
• Ensuring the organization's future by taking the long term view
• Nurturing growth by championing innovation
• Ensuring accuracy of the organization's financial reports through thorough scrutiny
• Adding credibility to the organization's decisions through due diligence and independence
• Hiring the right CEO and giving that person regular performance improvement feedback
• Providing the right mix of incentives that aligns management with delivering share value
• Removing non-performing officers
• Focusing the organization's attention on strategic imperatives