Board Evaluation
3D Group’s Board Effectiveness Profile is an instrument that measures the most relevant aspects of a board functioning for corporate boards. The assessment process provides a self-evaluation to help set strategic priorities and assess skill gaps for director succession planning.
What it Measures
Facilitating Organizational Effectiveness
- Mission, Vision, Values - the extent to which the board is aligned with the company’s core values, mission, and corporate vision.
- Leadership Succession - the development of effective succession plans for the CEO, board members, and organization-wide leadership.
- Operational Excellence - the board’s understanding of the company’s core products, customers, marketplace, finances, human resources management and information technology in relation to the company’s core business.
- Performance Management - CEO pay, the CEO review process and metrics to assess organizational effectiveness.
Oversight and Risk Management
- Oversight and Risk Management - understanding of international, regulatory, legal and financial issues required for effective oversight.
Board Characteristics
- Board Structure - the appropriateness of board committees, extent membership diversity, conflict resolution procedures, and meeting productivity.
- Decision Making Processes - inclusion of different viewpoints, consideration of appropriate and complete information, open discussion and presence of board consensus.
- Board Competencies - strength of the board as a whole in 8 key areas: Ethics, Analytical Thinking, Industry Knowledge, Teamwork, Communication, Political Savvy, Legal Insight and Financial Acumen.
- Meeting Logistics - meeting location, attendance, frequency and the usefulness of management reports presented at meetings.
- Relationship with the CEO - trust and respect between the CEO and the board, clarity of the CEO role and the role of the board in relation to the CEO.
Committee Effectiveness
- Customized for each board - Each board committee is rated on the reliability, usefulness and timeliness of their reporting.
Assessment Overview
Questions
Each director uses a 4-point numeric scale to rate the board as a whole on 63 standard questions as well as providing open-ended comments for each area. Survey questions are clear, behavioral, and contain a minimum of jargon and esoteric terminology.
Tailored Content
In addition to the core questions, surveys are customized to reflect each board’s committee structure as well as providing an area to collect feedback about specific board initiatives.
Format
The survey can be completed over the Internet or via paper and takes 15–20 minutes to complete depending on how many comments directors provide.
Report & Development Planning
The Board Effectiveness Profile report contains 5 main sections. Throughout the report, results are color-coded to easily identify strengths and development needs within each area.
Executive Summary
This two-page summary of all results identifies the board’s key strengths and potential development needs, providing a quick overview of the board’s overall effectiveness.
Introduction
This one page overview describes the methods of data collection, lists the members who completed the assessment, and explains some of the technical elements of the report such as methods used for computing certain scores.
Overall Results
A single graphic displays the average ratings for each of the 11 dimensions. The color-coded graphic provides an immediate overview of the board’s strengths, possible areas for development and clear development needs.
Detailed Results
This section details ratings for each question within each of the 11 dimensions. Director ratings of each question allow for more precise analysis when exploring issues within a particular dimension. Open-ended responses are also displayed.
Appendix
An appendix lists average scores for all survey questions ranked from highest to lowest. Feedback facilitation is available wherein a 3D Group consultant will work with the board to review the report, discuss the findings and implications in depth and then identify specific goals and action plans to support board development.
Contact a consultant to learn more about the Board Evaluation Assessment and how it improves the 360 degree feedback process.
