Key Points
- Good Governance principles and codes can be reviewed and adopted into a document that sets out ‘how’ or the ‘way’ the organisation will achieve ‘good governance’
- Good Governance principles and codes can be reviewed and adopted into a document that sets out ‘how’ or the ‘way’ the organisation will achieve ‘good governance’
- Good Governance principles and codes can be reviewed and adopted into a document that sets out ‘how’ or the ‘way’ the organisation will achieve ‘good governance’
- There’s no one size fits all approach but principles can be adopted and adapted
Good governance doesn’t just happen. It happens because of a mix of having a good governance structure, good policies, processes and procedures; and having the right mix of people in governance roles. So there’s both technical sides as well as ‘soft skills’ activities that are needed.
Something the Board or Committee may want to explore is a self-assessment of the organisation’s governance capability against well-known standards. While some of these governance standards may appear to be focussed on larger organisations, it’s good to remember there is no ‘one size fits all’. The principles and resources available could be considered and adapted to help the organisation reflect on the quality of its governance practices and identify any gaps.
Top Tip
Consider using the good governance checklist – even just a few questions – to explore what development opportunities the committee could focus on
Want more? ... check out these resources
Guide Book - Australian Institute of Company Directors - 109 pages
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The Australian Institute of Company Directors has a guidebook listing 10 Not for Profit Governance Principles. This is a long document so you might want to work through each Principle at each meeting during a review year.
Code - DIY Committee Guide - 1 hour read
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Ok this one is long too, but it is well structured being broken down into five key principles with different approaches for each principled that could be adapted to suit your Committee. The DIY Committee Guide (Northern Ireland) is a resource for people working to improve governance and includes a link to its Governance Health Check.
Self-assessment tool - Victorian Government - 5 minutes read with lots of links
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Here is just one example of the many governance self-assessment tools available – this one is called the Governance Capability Framework developed by the Victorian Government that provides an assessment toolkit against 20 capabilities for all Board members and additional capabilities for Office Bearers.
Checklist – Association of Independent Schools of South Australia – 3 minutes
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The Association of Independent Schools of South Australia has developed this really concise good governance checklist that you can use as a structure for your handover briefing to incoming governance members.