Self-assessment of the board is a crucial behavior of leadership that boards that are highly effective utilize to ensure their long-term governance. It requires the board to take a step back from its day-to-day operations and review its effectiveness. This allows the board to take on areas that could otherwise become major sources of discontent and tension.
There are a myriad of ways to conduct a self assessment of the board, from surveys and interviews to facilitated discussions. The best method depends on the size of the board, available resources and how deep you wish to go into the assessment.
When you choose the method, be sure to define the goals of the assessment. For instance, do desire to improve governance, align governance with goals of the organization, or improve accountability? Once you’ve determined this you can choose an evaluation tool.
Some tools allow you corporate governance system to evaluate your results against other hospitals and health systems, while others focus solely on your organization’s governance practices. No matter what you choose it is important to ensure that the tools used are unbiased and don’t make any mention of director individuals. This will create a safe environment where honest feedback can be given.
Many boards also employ peer review processes that asks board members to evaluate their fellow directors. This can be a useful and efficient process, but it is important that the process remain secret. It can be difficult for some directors to critique another director if they fear it will be retaliated against them. In this scenario, it’s often better to have the facilitator go through all of the comments and determine which insights are pertinent to share with the board.