It doesn’t matter if it’s strategic, financial, governance or HR related, board management decision-making requires carefully weighing of a array of information. This is particularly relevant for the more complicated issues that a board may be faced with, such as M&A and strategy-related decisions.
To understand the risks and form an opinion regarding the potential risks, these issues require a large amount of qualitative input. This level of detail has to be managed with care to avoid the decision-making process from slowing down or becoming time-consuming. These decisions can often be addressed in more focused meetings of the board, or in a separate workshop. This can help save time and energy in other discussions at a strategic level.
The appropriate people must be present when the board debates the issue. The tendency of groupthink and boards to rubber stamp decisions can have serious https://boardmeetingtool.net/board-chair-responsibilities/ consequences. It is recommended that boards take the initiative to scrutinize every formal decision they receive to determine if the decision is appropriate for that level.
In order to do this it is helpful for boards to think about the various models of decision-making that are available. They vary in complexity but all have strengths and weaknesses. It is an ideal idea for a board to talk with its management team the advantages and disadvantages of each framework to decide which one is the best fit for a specific task.