This article from HBR applies to almost everything we’ve been doing in MP from a group standpoint, and yet at one of the highest levels of business responsibility.

In today’s corporate society, it seems that Boards of Directors are sometimes viewed or regarded as just “guys sitting around a table”.  But this article deals specifically with the fact of how boards need to work, because there were lots of “smart people” in some of the most successful companies, while at the same time some of the most disastrous and unethical ones.

This article closely reminds me of the colored hat activity we had in class.  Who’s a black hat, causing all the trouble… It reminds me of a couple of conversations we had in our fall and spring MP groups, since in the first meetings we had, we all discussed who was strong in certain areas, who was the black hat, etc, and what other hats we purposely wanted to try on.  Instead of being complacent individuals to go with the flow and not challenge major initiatives, board members need to be engaged, involved, and asking the questions, the real ones, not just agreeing or disagreeing to a topic.

The article also noted that even though fierce discussion and disagreement is necessary and just, once the group decision has been made, the most successful boards also put up a united front on the action.  There is no “I told you so”, or private dissention if a decision was good or bad.  The board unanimously backs the forward motion of the decisions of the company.

http://archive.excellencegateway.org.uk/media/FE%20Governance/What_makes_great_boards_great.pdf