Governance, Board Effectiveness and Culture

Sound governance and effective boards are a top priority for regulators around the globe as they link poor practices with poor culture and inadequate governance arrangements.

The complexity and pace of change within different industries is growing and it’s crucial that organisations foster responsible decision-making through effective governance structures. Organisations need to take their governance, diversity and culture seriously in the interests of consumers and markets as well as increasing their own resilience and innovation.

Boards and management teams of the most ambitious organisations, regardless of size and complexity, recognise the importance of governance and culture as the foundation for success.

Our Approach

An organisation’s effectiveness is impacted, influenced and often determined by the structure of its governance, the efficacy of its board and the alignment of its culture to its strategy and goals. We bring together technical expertise, industry knowledge and an understanding of organisational dynamics to our work in Governance, Board Effectiveness and Culture. We work with regulators, Boards, Executive Committees, HR professionals, in a variety of contexts to assess, evaluate and enhance all aspects of Governance, Board Effectiveness and Culture. We see all three areas as inherently connected and interdependent but each can be approached individually. Whether working on a consulting assignment, a skilled person review, an independent review of governance and/or board effectiveness or a culture programme, we look at both design and operational effectiveness.

Our Services

Governance

We evaluate the composition of Boards and their committees, the assignment of responsibilities and decision making and the accurate recording of all board matters and interactions.
We work with Boards to assess whether they have the optimum design of governance to achieve their strategy and goals.
We help Boards identify whether the design of governance is aligned with best practice / and or regulatory requirements.
We make recommendations for design enhancement or redesign where necessary.

Board Effectiveness

The operational effectiveness of governance is, in our view, synonymous with how effectively the board functions. It will significantly determine and influence organisational culture.

We use our behavioural expertise to observe, evaluate and determine a Board’s effectiveness.
We make recommendations and work actively closely with Boards and their members helping them work more effectively together.

Culture

Organisational culture is a broad topic and can be approached in many different ways using different lenses.

Our work with Boards focuses on their responsibilities in determining, communicating, disseminating and monitoring culture. We work with the broader organisation on all aspects of culture including enablers and barriers, formal and informal aspects, behaviours (both espoused and enacted) evaluation and measurement.

SM&CR and Senior Assessments

The UK’s SM&CR is unique and for Core and Enhanced firms impose significant obligations. These include SMF holder approval, certification process design and update, annual certification process and staff-wide fit and proper assessments.

As a core element of governance, we’re often called on to review SM&CR arrangements (e.g. consistency of MRMs, allocation of Prescribed Responsibilities) as well as to assist firms in making the right appointments at SMF level.

We’re a team of experienced organisational psychologists with deep expertise in senior assessments (whether for selection or development purposes).
We’re qualified and experienced in using a range of psychometric and other assessment tools to support our practice in this area.
We design and deliver tailored solutions for our clients based on robust assessment practices and integrated into talent management and succession planning initiatives or other governance / compliance related areas such as SM&CR.