Testimonial:

George Carpenter
CEO, CNS Response

After more than one year of a great amount of turbulence at the board and executive team levels, we needed a deep and independent assessment of our management effectiveness.  This was particularly complex because our founder and former CEO remained a disruptive force to the organization in many ways.

Michael and I met, and at that time I was not exactly sure about the right path forward and how to implement the assessment and change process.  All I knew was that we needed an outside and expert view that could enable us to better understand some of our historical dysfunction and then help us to develop a road forward as a company, board, and executive team.  However, as soon as I was able, we contracted with Brainard Strategy.  Michael demonstrated a confidential and practical approach for to conducting a board and executive assessment process which could be implemented instantly.

Michael’s blend of assessment skills, organizational development knowledge, and senior executive presence helped me to get our management team focused on the key re-building activities.  Additionally, Michael put together a report that enabled our board to clearly understand the challenges, root causes, and strategic choices as we moved forward.  Lastly, we are implementing his action items and our company is in a vastly better place today than we were prior to engaging with Brainard Strategy.  As a small publicly traded firm, Michael applied a highly customized, thorough, and legally defense-able process for us to resolve once and for all some of our major challenges and move forward in a much more unified way.

Testimonial:
Brainard Strategy’s flexible options for management assessment enabled us to navigate very choppy waters and we are better for it at the board level, executive team level and organizational level.

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Board Assessment

BUSINESS CASE:  Why Do it?

• Credibility with the Investment Community
• Recruiting Capable Directors
• Retaining Strong Inside Executive Talent
• Establishing Board Accountability
• Creates a "ROADMAP" FOR DEVELOPMENT

Introduction
Although the typical board of directors evaluates the chief staff executive annually, too few boards understand the value of assessing their own performance. But without a defined, periodic evaluation process, a board materially increases the chances that it may drift aimlessly or, worse, sink into disarray.

Answering three common questions about board assessment will help you see that the process is not difficult--and can be richly rewarding for everyone involved.

1. Why bother with a board assessment?
2. How often should the board engage in self-assessment?
3. Exactly how does an assessment work?

Our Process consists of:

• Self-evaluation
• Peer evaluation
• Direct “outsider” evaluation
• Committee evaluation
• Meeting evaluation
• Organizational Evaluation

Outcomes
The outcome of the assessment process is a REPORT CARD.  The questions asked of the board stimulate reflection among directors. However, the real insight and development comes with the feedback of results that highlight trends, patterns and key perception differences. Our experience is that this cannot be done effectively as an agenda item at a regular board meeting. The greatest learning and potential for change occurs when the group focuses on the most relevant issues from the feedback at a meeting venue other than its normal setting e.g. a board retreat. This helps change the paradigms and expectations that this is not going to be another "business as usual" meeting.

After the board sees the results of its own data summarized, and the "best practices" are presented, the directors are led through a process of action planning to lay a course forward. This course reflects what it will choose to do differently and how it will monitor itself in doing so to hold itself accountable.

The Action Planning may include things such as changing in the way information is handled, how meetings are conducted, how strategic progress is monitored or how directors are selected and/or replaced.