An internally-facilitated board review is a good way to support your board’s continuous development, check progress between external reviews, monitor the impact of changes in board composition or strategic shifts. It can also be an opportunity for a more in-depth evaluation of one specific area of the board’s work. Our online board assessment platform, Thinking Board, offers solutions designed to meet your board’s development needs.
Why not just do your own internal review?
We have distilled over 20 years’ experience of assessing hundreds of boards to create our online governance assessment platform that does so much more than provide an effectiveness score.
Will you get any better insight?
Conventional questionnaires rarely provide any surprising insights. Thinking Board is different with a unique question structure that helps you understand what’s underlying the scores. It makes the whole board review process more engaging, and overcomes the typical problems with questionnaires. Time and again our clients tell us they were impressed and surprised by the analysis they got from our questionnaire-based report.
What if you need to deliver a difficult message?
Sometimes there are sensitive issues that need to be addressed. Experience has taught us that people provide more honest feedback when confidentiality is guaranteed. With Thinking Board all responses remain anonymous.
How can you get a better response rate?
Our online system tracks respondents and flags late responders – so we can work with you to give them a nudge. And we’ll give you a template email for the Chair to encourage a good response.
How much of the CoSec’s time will this board review take?
Very little. Once we have the respondents’ email addresses, it’s over to us and things happen fast. Thinking Board allows you to complete the whole internal review process and obtain a board-ready report in as little as three weeks.
Is it time to do something a bit different this year?
Is your board suffering questionnaire fatigue? Our library of Thinking Board options means you can vary the approach from year to year. Take a deep dive into risk oversight, focus on ESG or explore individual director contributions. See our suite of Thinking Board options here.
Can you track progress easily?
More boards are opting for a continuous board development cycle over a three-year period. With Thinking Board, you can compare results from year to year, to monitor the impact of development actions and spot potential issues before they escalate.
Can I get help interpreting the results?
Yes. For a small fee we can provide an analytical report that highlights priority areas for consideration. Or, for a bit more, you can turn your internal review into an external Independent Audit report.
Self-assessment options
Thinking Board Evaluator
A fully-automated assessment of the 12 key areas of board effectiveness with board-ready reporting
Supported Thinking Board Review
Includes extra options for committee reviews, meeting observation and additional support from us.
Our approach to Self-assessment
Scoping phase
We listen carefully to ensure we understand your board’s specific context and objectives. Then, work with you to implement a review process that will deliver the results you want.
Information gathering
Thinking Board gathers information in a way that is entirely non-attributable and guarantees confidentiality. For further insight we can review board papers and observe key meetings.
Report preparation
Thinking Board provides insightful analysis that allows you to identify key themes and response patterns. It can also provide board-ready reporting, or an experienced advisor can assist with identifying areas for discussion.
Follow up
We can offer further guidance on development elements as needed. Our advisors remain in touch from year to year to support your evolving governance development.
What our clients say about us
We listen carefully to feedback from our clients to ensure our service stays relevant and provides practical, valuable outcomes.
“We wanted to make sure our internal board review delivered genuine value and Independent Audit helped us achieve that. We had a lot of positive feedback from NEDs on the process and the final report generated a really good conversation at the Board which will lead to meaningful improvements.”
“I was delighted to have Independent Audit facilitate our internal board review using their Thinking Board platform. We benefited from their expertise and prior knowledge of the firm. The board found the report balanced, thought-provoking and enjoyable. It exceeded our expectations of what can be achieved with an internal review.”
“Independent Audit’s automated online platform was really easy to use and very efficient in terms of the minimal time required to administer. The generated report was very helpful in that, beyond fulfilling compliance needs, it stimulated a worthwhile board discussion. When you consider the amount of CoSec time saved, the simplicity of the process and the quality of the report, it really is excellent value for money and a significant improvement on anything we could undertake internally.”