Self-assessment by the board is an essential management practice that top-performing boards utilize to ensure their long-term governance. It requires board members to take a look back and honestly assess their effectiveness. This allows the board to proactively take on areas that could otherwise cause major frustration and friction.

There are a myriad of ways to conduct a self-assessment on your board including interviews and surveys to facilitation-based discussions. The best method will depend on the size of your board, the resources you have available and the level of detail you want to get into the assessment.

If you choose the method, be sure you are clear about what you want to accomplish by the process. For instance, do you seek to improve governance, align governance with goals of the organization, or enhance accountability? Once you Corporate Communications Policy have determined this, you can pick an evaluation tool.

Certain tools allow you to evaluate your results against other health facilities or hospitals and others focus exclusively on the governance practices of your organization. It is important to ensure that the tools you choose are impartial and don’t make a distinction between directors. This will create a secure environment for honest feedback.

Many boards also employ peer review, which allows board members to review their fellow directors. This can be an extremely productive and beneficial process, but it is vital that the process is confidential. Some directors might be reluctant to criticize a director due to fear of consequences. In this situation it is typically better to let the facilitator go through the responses to determine what information is relevant to share with the board.