How to Conduct a Board Self-Assessment
Board Self-Assessment is an essential component of a well-established board governance process. Its purpose is to ensure that your board members understand their role and how they can most effectively contribute to the success of your non-profit organization. This includes identifying areas for improvement and strengths. It is also important to make sure that your board members are content with their work and experience in the board.
Using an online Board Self-Assessment tool is one of the most popular and efficient ways to conduct an assessment for your board. This helps keep the process focused and less stressful for your board members.
Once you have a board self-assessment tool set out the objectives of the test to help decide on the method that will be used. Consider the number of questions you’d like to inquire about in your assessment, and available resources when choosing the best method to collect data. You can use surveys or interviews, or even facilitated discussion to assess your situation.
Analyze the data and interpret it to get meaningful insights. This requires comparing quantitative data to discover patterns and trends in the results, and also considering qualitative feedback.
After the data is analyzed, it is important to facilitate an open discussion with your board. In these sessions the board will go over the results of the self-assessment. They will also work together on ways to improve the board’s governance and performance. During these discussion sessions, make sure that board members are confident in sharing their honest and candid feedback. It is also crucial to conduct discussions with complete confidentiality, so that no board member could be identified by the nature of their responses.