Board management decision-making is a complex process that requires balancing executive tasks and responsibilities against the overall perspective needed to decide on which strategies the firm should pursue, as well as the oversight required to oversee the new strategic direction. Unfortunately, the decision-making process is susceptible to a number of circumstances that can result in bad decisions. The majority of these issues stem from an imbalance of poor performance over a long period and the necessity to increase risk to compensate for the shortfall. The board could make a variety of flawed assessments and bad decisions which can have negative consequences for the business.
The first step is to ensure that each member of the board have access and confidence to objective information upon which they are able to base their decisions. This requires a thorough strategy that includes the gradual creation by the board of an impression or mental model of the issue and the investigation of that model to expose any inherent biases and assumptions that could affect the decisions that follow.
Another important factor is to determine when an issue is suitable for the board’s consideration. This is based on the overall governance https://boardmeetingtool.net/leading-software-to-improve-board-management-decision-making/ policy of the company as well as the board chair’s ability in facilitating the right discussions at the appropriate time to avoid unexpected decisions or those that are based on a “gut check” and aren’t backed up by evidence. It also depends upon the process of the board’s internal, such as how they arrange and review their agenda, identify what items need to be decided and decide whether the full-board or committee discussion is more appropriate.