Governance is the hot topic for organisations in the social change arena these days. And regulators are paying more and more attention to how good boards are. Since the buck stops with an organisation's board, how does it ensure that it is performing well?

Our clients approach us to:

• Help get the board to work together better
• Carry out a health check of the board
• Facilitate a meeting to consider a major decision
• 'Blue sky' the future
• Work out how they should govern the organisation better
• Plan a group structure
• Review the committee structure
• Help find the right people
• Develop a greater sense of authority through more democratic representation systems of governance
• Benchmark their practices.

Having carried out a major research programme on non-profit board performance for the housing corporation, we have developed a board member survey tool and a self-appraisal framework that allows boards simply and systematically to review their strengths and development areas and, collectively, to make plans to deal effectively with any areas of perceived risk.

We work with boards to think through strategic business issues too, like a merger, a group structure, a de-merger or even to identify what are the major issues for the future of the organisation of which they are custodians.