TBPL: Programmes for Councils and Economic Development Agencies

Mindful of the many boards under the umbrella of local government, and the work individual economic development agencies does with organisation in their respective region, The Boardroom Practice (TBPL) has designed a number of special-focus development programmes. A one page summary of courses is shown below.

There are four elements to the programme suite as follows:

An induction programme to be conducted by Management and the Chair for all new Trustees.
One day intense Governance Induction for new Trustees.
While the two components operate independently and are standalone, obviously there are great advantages to inducting new Trustees after they have been trained or developed some governance experience from the one day induction.
Evaluation process programmes linked to assessment and on going professional development.
Customised on going Professional Development Governance courses.

In all cases, the terminology Board/Trust is interchangeable.

Broad Level Critical Outcomes

All of the programmes are designed to provide an improved level of comfort and confidence for both Trustees themselves and those involved in appointing trustees and holding them accountable that professional and legal obligations are being delivered to a high standard of excellence and thus beneficiaries well being has the best possible chance of being enhanced.

Summary of Products

Name of Course	Purpose
In-house Induction	This involves a framework for conducting induction which meets accountability requirements is provided. This will provide Chairs and management with the tools and resources to design and implement consistent, comprehensive induction courses for new trustees.
Induction for New Trustees -1 day course	This is an intensive one day course designed to instil the fundamental competencies of governance into new trustees and covers legal and operational aspects of directorship in trusts.
Board Review and Evaluation Online self administered questionnaire Option for Board feedback session	This course involves a Board Evaluation, which leads to customised remedial refresher programmes that address particular needs. The emphasis is on personalized interactive extension work.
Chair Evaluation	This involves an initial in depth evaluation of Chair both in general and relative to specific demands of the particular post. Future Chair appointment on an annual basis will form part of the annual Board Evaluation paper.
Professional Governance Development courses for Existing Trustees	Two courses are offered to improve Professional Development:
1. Strategy and Risk 1 day course	This course extends basic governance skills into the increasingly common areas of risk management, enhanced accountability, strategic planning and the use of Board work plans to achieve goals.
2. Governance Refresher 1 day course	This course updates, re motivates and up-skills existing trustees in new areas (for example environmental issues, new financial accountability rules and CSR). Updates on legal standards and expectations for Trustees are especially important.

Programme Details

There is scope for customising each of the programmes to suit particular situations and the demands of particular entities. The constraint on customisation is simply ensuring that any changes:

Do not compromise coverage of material, and,
Do not compromise a relatively high level of consistency.

Induction Programmes

A. In-house Induction

General Comments

One of the key roles of the Chair is to ensure that the Trustees and Management are operating efficiently and effectively. It is acknowledged that any time there is a change in the Board this can lead to both the previous Board and Management having to discuss and explain previous decisions and this can effectively reduce the Board's output capacity for at least three months following the new members' arrival. This is of even greater concern in an environment when there is a continual annual turnover of members.

Compromising continuity within the board and its operations has the potential to generate risk. That is why succession planning is important. A critical component of succession planning is induction.

The Boardroom Practice Limited (TBPL) has developed a format for induction programmes that will help reduce downtime and complement other succession planning. This programme is flexible to take into account the specific nature of the Trust and would be created following discussions with the Chair and CEO of the Trust.

TBPL would undertake discussion with the Chair and work with Management for the first induction programme to review documentation and to develop this programme. Note, the actual programme is conducted by Management and the Chair. This programme would be a one-off cost to The Community Trust of Southland.

Outputs

Agreed framework for induction, including its role in succession planning. Participants will have a clear understanding of both the principles involved and their role in implementing induction.

So as to ensure consistency a short manual in template style will be produced covering:

Content guide for induction programmes
Sequential programme and accountability reporting framework

B. Intense Induction Programme for New Trustees

This induction programme falls into four elements. In each case there is a dual emphasis on:

What is the concept at issue, and,
How is it "played out" in this particular trust at present

For example: - distribution

Concept - the concept is that distribution should be fair and equitable and maximise the wealth of beneficiaries (that idea has a number of strands which would be explained and worked through)

Application - in "our trust" the principles of distribution we use are (x,y,z) and these help the beneficiaries in these ways (z,y,z) and the exceptions for this year are (x,y,z)

The elements are as follows:

The Trustee.
Effective Board/Trustee management.
Legislation.
Core Trustees in Trust roles.

Section (a) to (c) would be a morning session and (d) would be an afternoon session. It is expected that the programme would run from 8.30am/9am until 4.30pm/5pm with possible follow up questions and/or discussions after this.
In particular, the details of the programme are as follows:

a. The Trustee

The role of Trustee.
Obligations and expectations of Trustee and the total Trustee concept.
Protocols of Trustee.
Conflicts of Interest.

b. Effective Board/Trustee management

Meetings - process and protocols.
Board/Management process and protocols.
Board work programme.
Board dynamics.
Subcommittees.
Board and Chair evaluations.

c. Legislation

Key legislative Acts impacting on Community Trusts.
Outline of legislation including key areas of focus for Trustees.

d. Focus for the Trustees and Trust

Monitoring and compliance - risk management and performance management.
Budgeting and measuring - Finance.
Strategy development.
Succession planning knowledge management.
Stakeholder management.

This programme can be conducted by one person. TBPL has the expertise within its Principals and Associates and breadth of knowledge and understanding for this to occur.

The critical outcomes are that:

The Principals of the Trust can be confident that their obligation to appoint competent trustees has been met.
The Trustees can be confident that new members (Trustees) are aware of the particulars of the Trust which must be taken into account as the board discharges its obligations.
The management of the Trust can be confident that the (new) Trustees understand their general duties and the specific application of their duties in the trust they serve.

The critical outputs which help achieve these outcomes are:

Demonstrable understanding of the goals and objectives of the Trust on which newly appointed persons will serve.
Demonstrable understanding of the relevant legal context (for example the Trust deed and any general law) of the Trust on which newly appointed persons will serve.
Demonstrable understanding of the board plan which is used by board and management in implementing the trusts work plan.

Note:
1. The course will include hard PowerPoint presentation copies and a CD for easy use.
2. This course could be combined with other Trusts.

Board and Chair Assessments

Board assessment is a standard on going requirement for all boards. Key requirements are consistency and a high level of "buy in" from boards and the opportunity for meaningful rather than "box ticking" participation. The TBPL process of evaluation has been developed and tested with these specifics in mind.

There are times when there is a separate requirement for a detailed review of the performance of the Chair. This is generally the case where the current Board or Trust has not previously undertaken such a review.

Based on this outcome, both Board Assessment and Chair Assessment programmes are outlined below.

A. Board Assessment

TBPL Principals have created, conducted and been participants in a number of Board assessments. Over this period of time, TBPL has had the opportunity to critically appraise these assessments and TBPL has recently created an effective assessment programme.

This assessment programme involves an online board review and evaluation questionnaire that includes assessment of the board performance against the following criteria – the key six areas of focus covering the duties of the board, board administration processes, interaction with the CEO, review of the Chair and Board/Trust relationships and composition. The format is a combination of a five point rating scale, from very poor to excellent, some questions that require yes/sometimes/no answers and open ended questions. All questions have a comment section where the participants are asked to elaborate on their responses. TBPL offers a range of alternatives in with this board review and evaluation depending on the experience of the Board. These can include a coaching option to trustees on governance.

This product has proved to be a powerful board review and TBPL has had consistent, positive feedback from all participants in this process and boards have reported greater confidence, cohesion and overall effectiveness following these reviews.

Reports – An outcome of the board assessment is:

A board review report with the ratings and all responses outlined as in the online questionnaire including a detailed chair and CEO report.
A separate individual director/trustee report including director/trustee ratings of themselves combined with fellow directors/trustees non attributable comments to TBPL’s three main questions.

Content for Refresher Module on Professional Development

This programme is designed to be conducted as part of the Board Evaluation process to remind and refresh Trustees through a brief and succinct set of modules their key roles and responsibilities as a means of more accurately identifying opportunities for further development for the Trustees

Role and Purpose

Role of Board
Role of Management
Hiring, firing and working with CEO
Accountability for and to
Board responsible for
Board responsible to

Process and Procedures

Procedural efficiency
C.O.I.s
Monitoring
Agenda
Board Work Plan

Output

Outputs from the course are:

Initial Board evaluation prior to refresher module being run
Subsequent Board evaluation after refresher course run
Identification of "gaps" between the two evaluations

Leading to:

Identification of areas of opportunity for further Governance development.

B. Chair Assessments

TBPL would recommend that for the first major Chair Assessment Review, there is a more comprehensive questionnaire. Further questions based on the output from this would then be integrated into the standard Board Self Assessment Questionnaire in the following years.

It is recommended that the Chair assessment would be a separate self administered confidential questionnaire given to the Trustees. The final detail of the content will be based on input from the Chair and CEO.

Process

TBPL would be the recipient of the responses.
TBPL would assess the output, if necessary clarify responses from the separate Trustees. TBPL would then produce a report for the Chair and follow up conversation with the Chair.

A Governance Programme for Existing Trustees

TBPL offers two programmes:

A. Strategy and Risk

An ongoing programme for governance training for Trustees takes and enhances the brief outlines covered in that programme and looks in more depth at particular topics which are of importance to the Trustees.

In particular, it is recommended for the first governance session that the Trust focuses on strategic reviews including vision and values as well as a risk matrix created for the Trust.

Based on this review, the sessions would only be of interest to a singular Trust and could be limited (but not completely) to one day.

Both sessions would involve the Trust Senior Executive and Trustees and would be valuable in building a sound foundation for then a shorter annual review on Risk and Strategy.

Output for the programme would be

Understanding risk and uncertainty and why it matters
Risk in a Trust and in a specific trust
Strategy as a risk management tool
Strategy as a value enhancing tool

Key output: "Beyond Buzzwords: Interactive Strategy Build and Plan" - an interactive exercise during which attendees would develop a strategy crystallising their training in a working document and resource.

TBPL would work with The Community Trust client and gain documentation in order to structure the appropriate session focus. Further, with ten Trustees and Management, it is more effective to operate in a two to three group session with TBPL personnel managing this. This also allows for a more intensive output for a one day session.

B. A programme based on the output from the Board evaluation and Chair evaluation

Alternatives available for ongoing Trustee Governance development are likely to have been identified either through the Governance Training conducted separately and. more particularly, through the Board evaluation and Chair evaluation.