Self-Assessment: One Director's Take

A COLLEAGUE RESPONDED TO MY POLL QUESTION on board assessment with an email stating that his board has engaged in annual assessment for the last three years and they're gearing up for their fourth this fall. When I asked him if the assessment process surfaced any revelations, he replied:

Not really, but it provides an opportunity to catch little things early, for folks to air anything quietly that wasn’t big enough for them to say in a forum – and it removes any excuse for not saying something until too much later….

I hadn't thought of assessment quite that way -- surfacing the small stuff, not so much larger issues, but of course it does. The amount of "big" versus "small" issues likely depends on the organization and how frequently assessment is done. For those boards that have never done assessment, the issues could range all over the map, from large to small. Boards that regularly take the reflective pause are most able to manage large issues as well as easily dispatch the small ones, making regular assessment a highly useful management tool.

Photo: Self assessment from illek08

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