Board Committees

• Committees can assist in sharing the board’s workload and making more effective use of directors’ time.
• Committees enable a more effective consideration of complex or specialised issues. They make recommendations for action to the board, thereby ensuring that the board retains collective responsibility for corporate decision making.
• Common committees include audit, risk, remuneration or investment committees.
• Any Board member can set up a Board Committee
• Board Committees are approved by the Committee ‘owner’
• Board Committees share similar requirements to high performing teams in that they should have a defined and agreed mission to fulfil, have defined outcomes they need to achieve against which performance is measured regularly, roles are clearly defined, and their charter, or ways of operating, are agreed.

Creating a Committee

• The Board Committees page will display any committees that committee members are a member or that have been made visible by the committee creator
• From here you can create other committees by selecting +Committee
• For each committee, you can create or view:
  • The Committee’s overall mission
  • The Committee’s Plan and objectives, including the progress of those objectives
  • All Committee members and their roles
  • The Committee’s operating practices, including ground rules, values and behaviours, meetings and communication, and delegated authorities
• These will be visible to all committee members once set up and agreed

Define the Committee & its Mission

• Give the Committee a name
• Determine the visibility of the Committee details  
• Add the Committee owner and leader. The Committee leader is the individual responsible for guiding the Committee to deliver the mission and objectives. (Both will need to accept the creation of the Committee)

• The committee mission acts as a compass by which the committee can define its deliverables.  It is a short statement that covers:
  • What the committee delivers and how
  • What value it brings (and the impact it has on the organisation, shareholders and other stakeholders )

• Add the start date for the Committee and the date by which the mission is to be achieved
• The pulse frequency determines how often the leader with pulse check the overall Committee Business Plan. This is independent of the individual objectives’ pulse checks

Committee Business Plan and Objectives

• The Committee Objectives tab includes the committee’s Business Plan as well as the Business Plan Objectives
• The Business Plan details the high level plan for how the committee will go about achieving the mission during the relevant financial year – this needs to be agreed by the committee owner and can be submitted for approval either along with all the Business plan objectives or separately.
• The Business Plan will show as Pending until it has been agreed
• The Committee Leader or Owner can also attach supporting documents to the Business Plan that provide further detail if required. These documents will be available to view by anyone who has visibility of the committee

• Committee Business Plan Objectives are the committee level objectives that the define the priorities for the committee and the main activities the it will focus on in order to achieve the business plan. These will be redefined each financial year
• They can be added here or from the Committee Business Plan page once the committee has been agreed
• They can be added and owned by anyone on the committee, but will be approved by the committee leader before they can become a committee business plan objective Objectives can be added and then sent for agreement individually or all at once

• When adding an objective from the team’s Business Plan, the Committee leader will determine whether the objective is to appear on the business plan
• See the Setting Objectives guide for more information on setting an objective

Add Committee Members

• Add all the committee members
• Committee members can be allocated a role on the team. This does not necessarily need to be their position or role title but is an indication of the role they perform on the committee. These roles are later referenced when allocating decision making authority
• Committee members will receive a notification that they have been added to the committee
• Committee members can also be removed from the committee by the committee leader if they cease to be a member of the committee. If the committee member has any assigned objectives, the committee Leader will be prompted to either reassign the objective to a new objective owner or close the objective
• If the objective is reassigned, the new objective owner will be asked to agree to the objective.

Define committee Operating Practices

• For committees to be successful, members need to agree how they will operate and work together
• Operating practices describe ‘how’ the committee will operate on a day to day basis. Agreeing these upfront reduces confusion, frustration, and enhances transparency and the efficiency of the committee.
• These guidelines can be created collaboratively and agreed up front as the committee is formed.  
• Operating practices includes:
  • Ground rules and policies
  • Values and behaviours
  • Meetings and communication
  • Delegation and authorities

Operating Practices – Ground Rules and Values

Ground rules and policies

• Refers to any processes or practices that are important for the committee to follow in order to work together effectively
• Could include reference to existing processes, or a list of other practices that will be important for the committee

Values and behaviours

• Describe the core principles that guide decisions, actions and behaviours and describe what’s important.
• By agreeing ways of working and expected values and behaviours upfront individuals understand how to work with each other, what’s ok, and what’s not
• The Committee Values should align with the organisation’s values, but may be articulated in a way that is specific to the context of the committee through specific behaviours
• Add the Value and the individual behaviours that describe what that value looks like in practice

Operating Practices – Communication and Decision Making

Meetings and communication

• Identify the committees’s meeting and communication cadence, including the processes the committee will use to communicate with each other and with others
• Includes, meetings, reporting and other communication methods, their frequency and who will be involved

Delegation and authorities

• Define who is responsible for particular decisions or approvals
• This helps the committee make decisions more efficiently and effectively and avoids unnecessary delay, miscommunication or conflict
• Type of authority – what needs to be decided or approved – eg expenditure, headcount, project decisions
• Parameters – the level of decision to be made, trigger or minimum or maximum range  – for example a monetary amount, whether it’s within budget
• Team role – who has the responsibility to approve or make this decision within the committee

• Operating practices should be discussed and agreed with the committee as a whole and reviewed regularly as the committee evolves and further practices are identified that are necessary for the committee to be effective

Committee Retrospective Frequency

• Select the frequency of committee retrospectives
• Retrospectives allow the committee to reflect on the effectiveness of the committee at regular intervals and provide the Committee Leader with critical feedback on what’s working and what’s not
• They’re a great structure for a conversation about how well the committee is working together

Submit Committee to Finalise

• Once the Committee details are saved and submitted, both the committee leader and owner need to agree to the creation of the committee
• If the committee is ‘rejected’ by either party then a comment is added to explain the reasoning and the committee creator is notified. The creator of the committee can make any adjustments and then re-submit
• Once the committee has been created and approved, the committee leader will be able to:
  • Do committee pulse checks and retrospectives
  • View the committee talent profile (if committee members have shared
  • their Talent profiles)
  • Clone, Stop or Delete the committee

Now the Committee is Ready to Go

• Now that the committee has been created and the operating principles defined, the committee is ready.
• Any committees or teams you are an owner, leader or member of will appear on your left hand menu for easy ongoing access
• Access the business plan from here, update and pulse the progress of the plan, or add additional objectives. Objectives will be pulse checked by the objective owner, however members will be able to view the objective and pulse score if it has been made visible to others
• Retrospectives are also accessible from here
• Committee Settings allows you to view, and for the committee leaders edit, the committee’s mission, game plan, members and operating practices
• A committee’s Objectives page shows all objectives committee members are working on
• Any Pending objectives are listed separately allowing the committee leader to review and agree them easily