One ? Guides

What are the One Question Guides?

Here at O’BRIEN / Governance Design we’ve entered into a new venture with the launch of our online One Question Guides.  We decided to use our professional and consulting experiences to design useful and practical guides that support Boards, and the organisations they oversee, to effectively fulfil their corporate governance responsibilities.  Each Guide includes recommendations, tips, and solutions on a specific governance topic.

For our first outing we decided to produce a One Question Guide on Board Self-Evaluation.  Self-evaluation of performance by Boards and committees is now a standard governance requirement – for example in Ireland it’s specified in the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies and it’s also referred to in the recently published Charities Governance Code – but often it’s a missed opportunity.  The usual reasons apply: not enough preparation, not enough discussion, and ultimately, not enough time.

To help Boards and organisations get more from the process, the One Question Guide on Board Self-Evaluation provides an 8-stage model for carrying out a self-evaluation.  We’ve also tried to take some of the work out of implementing the evaluation by making available a questionnaire and reporting templates that can be downloaded and used immediately.

Available as two supplements to the One Question Guide on Board Self-Evaluation are a Checklist for Effectiveness of Audit and Risk Committees and a Self-Assessment Evaluation Questionnaire for Board Committees.  All three guides are free to download for a limited period and are available at One Question Guides.