In Brief

Many organizations engage with an outside governance consultant for a project or two, then lose the benefit of that relationship and support when Board members or executives change. Member-based associations in particular experience high rates of turnover in their Boards, but over the course of our long-term partnership with one such organization, we’ve built a deep understanding of our client’s purpose, context, and governance, enabling us to provide consistent, sustainable support as the faces around the table change.

Our Engagement

Watson was first engaged by a large member-based association almost 15 years ago to facilitate a comprehensive governance review, resulting in changes to its board structure, a sharper approach to director selection, and improved individual director performance through education and better meeting practices.

Given our deep knowledge of the organization and the positive impact on Board functioning and the quality of governance, we were retained on an ongoing basis, supporting multiple Board evaluations, director peer feedback processes, and Board strategy discussions. We also provided the Board with coaching and education on high-performing boards and emerging governance issues, helped them review their committee structure and performance, and facilitated discussions around strategy and other key topics. When the time came to recruit a new CEO, Watson found their next leader and provided ongoing support to help the Board evaluate the CEO’s performance.

With such a longstanding relationship, Watson has gained a deep understanding of how our client’s governance works in practice. We use that knowledge to continually enable the Board’s success, even with changes in Directors over the years.

Impact

Through our work together, Board and director performance have improved, and we have helped them embed processes to continually improve their Board, director, and committee performance. We applied learnings from each project to the next and helped them to evolve their overall governance practices, enabling them to work more effectively together, and ultimately better serve over 20,000 members.