The culture of the organisation and board drives the behaviours that determine how things get done. So, what is the culture and what do you need it to be? If the business needs to become more agile, innovative or productive, what are the behaviours needed to create those behaviours and how can the board drive and communicate the need for this?

Are the right people doing the right roles and does everyone have a clear and shared understanding of roles? Where there are issues of particular concern, should the board be appointing someone to take control of the issue? Is the right, temporary and permanent, succession planning in place? Does the board have the right skills for the future?

Is the need for more agile working and responsive decision-making being balanced against the need to ensure appropriate oversight and organisational processes? How well is risk being managed? Are the processes around information gathering and communication and the tempo of decision-making working effectively?

Is the board focusing on the right things in the right way and forward-thinking enough? Is the thinking being stretched enough and what measures are in place to come up with immediate, medium and long-term strategies when there is uncertainty and ambiguity? Are emotions and concerns being incorporated to allow for ‘feel-think-act-review’ cycles?

Decisions are almost certainly being based on underlying assumptions and beliefs, so what are those spoken, or unspoken beliefs and how are they influencing the board? What beliefs need to be challenged and how can beliefs be shared to allow for different perspectives and advocate new courses of action?

A boardroom that anchors people to shared values will allow people to safely voice concerns, reduce conflict and speed up decision-making. So what values are being used to define how the board goes about making decisions? How are directors using shared values, instead of defending individual view points, to operate as a unitary board?