Governance & Legal

Our board training is customised, interactive and engaging. Here is what one of our clients said about the half-day session we delivered to their trustees and executives last week. “After completing an internal governance review, we approached Jana to support some of our actions identified within our plan, our Board of Trustees annual away day was scheduled, and Jana was able to walk the Trustees through various governance aspects, including discussion on Lencioni's principles of high performing teams. The Trustees and Officers were able to actively engage, enabled by Jana's experience and knowledge providing valuable opportunity for reflection, discussion and planning for next steps. A great day and feedback from all. Thank you.” Lisa Martinali – CEO, St. Paul's Community Development Trust

I recently received a message from a connection, which in a nutshell said:   “I run a small charity and I do most of the governance myself. I need someone who can help me do it, rather than advise me how to do it. Is this something that you can help with”? My answer was – yes, absolutely, we can do it for you!   This made me wonder whether “consultancy” is the right word to describe what we do…..🤔

March has always felt like change to me. Like any change – a bit stormy and unsettled, especially at the start, but also positive because it brings hope and the prospect of longer brighter spells, better days. So, I am thinking about change today – in my personal life, in my professional life in my day-to-day life – there has been a fair share of it. Most of the time, I get excited about change! Then I realise the paradox - I can afford to get excited about change because it rests on the stability that I have around me – the support from my family, personal friends, professional connections, the wonderful inspiring people that I get a chance to work with. I am grateful to them all for the stability they provide me with, so I can not only withstand change but also get excited about it. Interesting, how stability and change can co-exist and complement each other.

Wondering where to start with your governance work in the new year?   I personally like to get my governance house in order at the start of the new year. My actual house too, I love taking down the Christmas decorations. Not that I don’t like Christmas decorations or Christmas but for me there is something calming in being able to see every corner of the house again …..but that’s another conversation 😊   So, here is a good place to start with your governance – draft your board and committee forward agenda plans for the new year and get them approved at the January round of Board and Committee meetings. This will: Help you to quickly create draft agendas well ahead of time for all your board and committee meetings; Allow your board and committees to have a full view of what they will be working on during the year; Give your executives plenty of notice on the reports they should be working on, thus hopefully avoiding last minute meeting prep fever; Provide you with the opportunity to spot any gaps and duplications of items that your board and committees must or should be looking at. If you want to make sure you cover that last point 👆👆really well, cross refer with the board and committees TORs and when doing so ask yourself the question – how is each individual responsibility reflected or satisfied in the forward agenda plan for that board or committee?

It’s board away day season! Which invariably combines with a roast turkey lunch/dinner, Christmas crackers with useful (not!) gifts, brightly coloured paper crowns 🤷🏻♀️….you know how it goes 🥳   So, while you are discussing your strategy, your approach to risk management, your customer engagement model, the effectiveness of your complaints handling process, future partnership working opportunities, etc – all very important topics for the status quo and future direction of your organisation, why not think about the skills you need around your boardroom table.   When was the last time you reviewed the skills of your non-executive directors? Has your strategy or business model changed since then? Have some of your board members retired and left you with a skills gap? Does your board membership reflect the diversity of the communities your organisation serves?   “It’s always good to check” – says Governance & Legal, but also the National Housing Federation Code of Governance, the Charity Code of Governance and the UK Corporate Governance Code.   It’s important, because: