Board Advisory Services
Governing into the Future
In Boardroom Education
Build a Board That Is Fit for the Future
Boards today face converging pressures, from geopolitical shifts and technology disruption to activist investors and rising disclosure demands. The governance practices of the last decade were not built to handle them.
This in-boardroom education program translates NACD's Framework for Governing into the Future into a facilitated full-board session. Developed by NACD's Commission on the Future of the American Board with more than 20 board leaders, investors, CEOs, and academics, the framework sets out ten principles-based standards that replace one-size-fits-all checklists with judgment-based governance. It applies to public and private company boards alike. Boards that complete the program receive a certificate of completion in the organization's name that can be referenced in proxy statements.
Learning Objectives
- Articulate the corporation's purpose and connect it to strategy, culture, and long-term value creation.
- Distinguish the board's oversight role from management's operating role, and design structures that preserve that distinction under pressure.
- Take ownership of the board's own agenda, priorities, and information needs rather than defaulting to management's or last year's calendar.
- Strengthen board-management trust through agreed behavioral norms, effective executive sessions, and unstructured CEO time.
- Sharpen oversight of strategy, mission-critical risk, and crisis response in a fast-moving operating environment.
- Align talent, culture, and executive compensation decisions with long-term performance and equitable outcomes.
- Apply a rigorous, non-rote approach to board composition, refreshment, and individual director evaluation.
- Build a coordinated approach to disclosure, shareholder engagement, and public positions on sensitive issues.
Designed For
- Full boards of directors of public, private, not-for-profit, and PE-backed companies. The program is designed for institutional adoption, with the certificate of completion awarded to the board as a governing body.
- Board chairs, nominating and governance committee chairs, audit committee chairs, general counsel, corporate secretaries, and directors attend together, since they share accountability for the board's governance.
Available Formats
A two-hour, expert-led workshop, either in person or virtual, that aims to help the board apply NACD's ten principles for governing into the future, including a focus on discussion-ready board questions, committee blueprints for audit, compensation, risk, and nominating and governance, and a self-assessment the board can use immediately.