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The Savvy Director Blog

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Wherever you are on your governance journey, you'll find this is a place to build your knowledge, discover the latest thinking, and explore valuable insights about your director role. 

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The People Side of Board Dysfunction

 

If you find your board work a less than enjoyable experience, and board meetings boring and frustrating, maybe you’re part of a dysfunctional board.

When it comes to a board of directors, dysfunction tends to arise from two broad areas – process and people. You’re probably not surprised that people-centered dysfunction is way more frustrating to experience, and way trickier to fix, than the process-centered kind. That’s what happens when you throw human nature into the mix!

Still, there are...

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CEO Selection - It's Time to Choose

prepare for meetings Jul 13, 2025


Over the years I’ve been involved in more than a few searches for a new CEO, and, I have to say, it’s got to be one of the most nerve-wracking processes that a board of directors undertakes. There is just so much riding on that one decision. It’s a process that is fraught with risk – the risk of overlooking the right person and selecting the wrong person.

In recent blog posts, we’ve dealt with different takes on the board’s role in CEO succession – first, the challenge of naming an interim CEO ...

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Amplify Your Insight

think independently Jul 06, 2025

If you’ve been hesitant to try AI, you’re not alone — and you’re not behind. Many board directors are still figuring out where AI fits into their governance work.

The good news? You don’t need to be a tech expert to benefit from AI. You just need to be curious and willing to see with your own eyes. That’s what it means to be an independent thinker.

This week’s edition of The Savvy Director explores how AI tools — especially DirectorPrep’s ChatDPQ™ — can harness AI to support your role as a ...

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Six Super Questions for Directors

ask great questions Jun 29, 2025

At DirectorPrep, we’re obsessed with questions. Asking clear, compelling questions is often the best way that we, as directors, can make a significant contribution to discussions and influence board decisions.

We use questions to clarify information, launch and build on meaningful discussions, encourage dialogue, and challenge assumptions. Without questions, how would we explore fresh ideas, analyze problems, and generate solutions?

The concept is simple - better questions kick start better ...

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Being Human in a Chaotic World

prepare for meetings Jun 22, 2025
 

Here’s a new acronym for you. BANI. It stands for Brittle, Anxious, Non-linear, and Incomprehensible. These four words form a framework that’s meant to describe the current state of the world.

Futurist Jamais Cascio created the BANI framework as a way of dealing with an increasingly chaotic environment — a confusing world that leaves us with the sense that things are spinning out of control. Cascio’s goal was to uncover an understanding of why we’re getting unexpected outcomes, and how the ...

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Getting the Most Out of Committees

The Savvy Director blog usually focuses on the director role as it relates to the board as a whole. But in the past few weeks, I’ve found myself spending far more time on my role as a committee member. And that’s not unusual.

With committee work on my mind, it seems like a good time to write about board committees.

I like to include quotations in these blog posts, so I did a quick Google search on ‘Quotes about Committees’. It pains me to say it, but apparently few have ever had anything goo...

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The Legacy of Leadership

As board directors, we often measure our impact by the weight of our responsibilities, the complexity of the decisions we make, or the prestige of the organizations we serve. But when our board term comes to an end, and our memory of all the meetings fades, what truly remains?

It’s not the title.

It’s not the time you spent.

It’s not the governance rules you learned.

It’s the legacy you leave behind in the hearts and minds of those you served with.

“They may forget what you said — but t...

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Curiosity Makes the Director

ask great questions Jun 01, 2025

I often close my email messages with the words ‘Stay Curious.’

For me, it’s more than just a closing line like ‘Sincerely’ or ‘Yours truly.’ I mean it as a reminder to the reader – and to myself for that matter – to intentionally focus on always bringing a lively state of curiosity to the board table.

I firmly believe that curiosity is one of the attributes that separates a ho-hum board director from a Savvy Director.

And I’m not alone in thinking that.

“The best board members are inhere...

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The Tenth Person Rule

think independently May 25, 2025

One of the fundamental assumptions about the value of a board of directors is that group decisions produce better outcomes than those made by individuals. The idea is that diverse perspectives and robust debate improve the decision-making process. That’s often — but not always — true.

The reality is that, in the boardroom, group dynamics can get in the way. Consider Groupthink. It can cause directors to agree with one another for the sake of avoiding conflict. This group harmony comes at the ...

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Evaluating Board Meetings

This is the last in a series of four Savvy Director articles dealing with various aspects of board and director evaluation. The first two articles in the series, “From Compliance to Improvement” and “From Evaluation to Action,” explored the board evaluation process, and the third, “Evaluating the Individual Director,” dealt with director self-assessments and peer evaluations.

When it comes to the board of directors, board meetings are where pretty much everything that matters gets done – idea...

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