Most failures in strategic advisory boards trace back to a conversation someone avoided having. The hardest part of the wider organisational leadership agenda is rarely deciding — it is holding the decision when it becomes unpopular. A common pattern is strong design of this strand of organisational leadership paired with weak follow-through. It is appropriate for those preparing to take on wider responsibility for strategic advisory boards. Cases are chosen to expose the trade-offs in the organisational leadership capability rather than to illustrate ideal conditions. They acquire practical criteria for judging when this area of organisational leadership is working and when it is only appearing to. It treats strategic advisory boards as an operating discipline and equips participants to run it as one. Benchmarking exercises repeatedly place the organisational leadership discipline among the areas with the widest performance spread. The closing exercise tests whether the participant's plan for the wider organisational leadership agenda survives a hostile question.
Expected Learning Outcomes
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Draw practical lessons from failures in strategic advisory boards without assigning blame that suppresses reporting.
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Hold difficult conversations about strategic advisory boards early, while they are still small.
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Align the incentives of different functions so strategic advisory boards is not quietly sabotaged.
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Set standards on strategic advisory boards and apply them consistently regardless of who is involved.
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Review your own performance on strategic advisory boards as rigorously as you review others'.
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Set the minimum documentation for strategic advisory boards that is genuinely necessary, and stop there.
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Identify the failure points in strategic advisory boards most likely to cause loss, and control them first.
Who Should Attend
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Board members and non-executives overseeing strategic advisory boards.
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Team leaders responsible for daily delivery of strategic advisory boards.
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Consultants coaching leadership teams on strategic advisory boards.
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Quality staff verifying that strategic advisory boards performs as designed.
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Human resources partners advising leaders on strategic advisory boards.
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Technical staff being prepared for supervisory responsibility over strategic advisory boards.
Course Modules
Open any module to see its sessions and topics.
01
Strategic advisory boards: delegation, trust and accountability
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Delegating strategic advisory boards without abandoning it
Name a single owner for each element of strategic advisory boards.
Record what was learned when strategic advisory boards did not go as planned.
Arrange the handover of strategic advisory boards so capability survives staff changes.
Identify single points of dependency in strategic advisory boards and reduce them.
Session 2Testing strategic advisory boards before relying on it
Review a past decision on strategic advisory boards and state honestly what you would change.
State the outcome expected from strategic advisory boards in a single sentence anyone can repeat.
Agree the standard on strategic advisory boards and confirm it applies to everyone.
Give one piece of specific feedback on strategic advisory boards within the week.
02
Strategic advisory boards: performance, standards and consistency
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Recovering after a visible mistake on strategic advisory boards
Build the competence framework that supports strategic advisory boards.
Confirm that the people affected by strategic advisory boards heard it from you first.
Rank the weaknesses in strategic advisory boards by consequence rather than by ease of fixing.
Test the procedure for strategic advisory boards against a realistic scenario.
Session 2Applying the standard on strategic advisory boards to your best performer
