Positive Change for our Boardrooms – Forever

Bee: “I think you’ll find we’re ALL in it.”

Peacock: “Let’s be honest. With my experience I am bound to be the focus of attention, but I expect you three have supporting roles. It would be rather exciting if it was made into a Hollywood blockbuster. I wonder who would play me?”

Bee: “I need to start organising lists of what needs to be done. Now then, what are the regulations about publishing and adapting a book for the screen? Let’s look at the rules that The Governor will need to follow, and what policies and procedures we need to know.”

Rabbit (going rather pale): “You aren’t serious, are you? Think of the publicity. Oh dear, oh dear! I don’t know how I’m going to handle everyone looking at me. I feel sick.”

Penguin (smiling broadly): “We’ll all be fine. Peacock has lots of experience, that’s very true. Bee is very busy looking up all the details for us – as always – I’m sure that we’re all very grateful. And you are doing amazingly well, Rabbit! Personally, I feel very lucky to be in a book with you all. You are all wonderful. Good job!”

Rabbit: “What do you know about this book, Peacock? Can you set my mind at rest?”

Peacock: “Well, it helps people understand how to be effective board members, like me.”

Penguin: “Great! That’s great!”

Bee: “It also looks at why organisations get things wrong. Let me pull out some emails and paperwork I’ve got here. You see avoiding failure is all about following the rules, I think. Look at what happened this year with the co-founder of Uber, Travis Kalanick. He resigned as Chief Executive after stories came out about a culture of bullying and harassment in the workplace. Kalanick seemed to think it was OK to let Uber have that kind of workplace.”

Peacock: “Well, he was Chief Executive. What’s wrong with wanting things done your way?”

Bee: “Plenty, clearly, when your big investors say you need to resign, which is what happened to Kalanick. Just because a company is privately held doesn’t mean you can’t be held to account.”

Penguin: “I certainly I wouldn’t like to work in a toxic atmosphere. It’s much better when everyone gets along. Things got a bit tricky at Sports Direct too didn’t they? The Government even got involved when things came out about how staff were treated.”

Bee: “You see! Sports Direct wasn’t an orthodox company. It all goes wrong when you don’t follow the rules.”

Rabbit: “But it’s got to be about people – not just rules, hasn’t it? I don’t know really, but …..”

Peacock: “Mike Ashley is a self-made man. He built Sports Direct from a single shop into a multi-billion pound business.”

Bee: “But remember, the shares fell from £3 to less than 35p after the company’s stock market launch, because investors became worried about his unconventional management style.”

Penguin: “Did you see the video of that poor man who got dragged off the United Airlines plane back in April this year? That seems to have sparked a lot of stories about things going wrong at that company and I don’t think they’ve handled it very well.”

Rabbit: “I think everyone saw that video.”

Bee: “They tried to put all the blame on the passenger. Not good. When things go wrong in private companies it’s often about share prices falling and there are financial consequences, perhaps job losses and a fall in investment. But when things go wrong in the public sector the consequences can mean catastrophic loss of life, as we saw in this June’s Grenfell Tower disaster. How can things go so terribly wrong?”

As you can probably tell, Peacock, Bee, Penguin and Rabbit still have a way to go on their journeys, but The Effective Board Member book will answer a lot of their questions about how board members should behave; about the good, the bad and the ugly of board appointments and the pitfalls – such as groupthink and wilful blindness – which can lead to catastrophic failures in the private, public and voluntary sectors. The book also looks at so-called ‘black swan’ events, a term used to describe rare events that have a major impact but appear to be hard to predict and the importance of learning from mistakes – sometimes known as ‘black box thinking’ named so after the data recording system that all aircraft carry to provide information in the event of an accident.

 

I created and run a series of Programmes to help those who would like to contribute to the governance and leadership of an organisation and these are tailored to meet the needs of people with different backgrounds and experience. For example, we have a programme for sports professionals; we have another programme for chief executives and executive officers and another for experienced board members. We are currently recruiting to all Programmes. To find out more, and to apply for a place, go to http://effectiveboardmember.co.uk.

 

Meanwhile, my book, The Effective Board Member, which enhances and complements the face-to-face training delivered on the Programmes, will be officially launched in central Birmingham on September 26, 2017. We have three VIP tickets available to my blog readers for what promises to be a high-profile and engaging night. They will be given to the first three people to email Elizabeth.muir@thegovernanceforum.com quoting KG Blog – Book Launch in the subject line.

 

If you are unable to make the launch and would like to pre-order your copy of the book for yourself or your organisation, please also email Elizabeth.muir@thegovernanceforum.com quoting EBM Book Pre-Order in the subject line and outlining the name and address and number of copies to be sent.

 

The journey to becoming an effective board member is one of the most worthwhile you will ever make – and together I know we can bring about positive change in our boardrooms, one person at a time.

 

Until next time…