Managing Biases to Improve
Board Culture 

The 2023 Report of the NACD Blue Ribbon Commission on Culture as the Foundation: Building a High-Performance Board introduced this resource to help boards recognize and address major biases that could hinder a board’s culture.

Biases are a natural consequence of the way our brains process extensive amounts of available information to make decisions. These mental shortcuts are susceptible to various influences and limitations that shape our perspectives, such as personal experiences, cultural upbringing, social conditioning, exposure to media and information sources, decision fatigue, and emotional factors, among others. These judgments may not align with rationality or objectivity and, if left unchecked, they can cause disagreements, poor decision-making, and silos in group settings, including the C-suite and the boardroom.