Thanks to everyone who joined me at the November 2020 Take on Board breakfast and, in particular, to our fabulous speaker Jo Smith from the New Zealand Productivity Commission.
Jo co-authored the report New Zealand Boards and Frontier Firms and took us through what directors told her, through interviews for the report, about their roles in helping firms grow. She also walked through the key findings to help us understand how skilful boards can best overcome challenges and succeed.
There was a lot shared, and so many fabulous questions asked of Jo – thank you for being active participants in this event. Here is a link to the report.
Below is a summary graphic that brings together some of the main messages from the report.
Shared links from participants:
- Helen Bird shared an AFR article from Oct 26 by Adele Ferguson on board networks reporting on research by Dean Paatsch from Ownership Matters.
- Julia Mason shared the outstanding WGEA report which made the causal link between gender and enhanced corporate performance.
Some of the feedback:
- Interesting conversation and enjoyed the break-out rooms
- Well run session with excellent time management. I even got to my other appointment at 9:15 am on time. There was a lot of good interaction.
- All of it! I thoroughly enjoyed the session.
- My first time to this format of session and it was great, well organised, kept moving and no hogging of air time by people with verbal diarrhoea.
- The breakout rooms worked well.
- The single presenter works better than having two at these breakfast events.
- Energetic and professional format where Helga multi-tasked – encouraging networking via the breakout rooms and then drawing on the participants to be actively involved in learnings from Jo’s research. Appreciated clear guidelines for participants in breakout rooms. Will follow up on ‘diversity dividend’.
- The format was really good. Engagement with attendees asking questions at the end was nice to see.
- The introductory group sessions. The presentation by the guest. The break out and analysis sessions.
- Everything worked well – loved the break-out rooms. The longer periods in chat worked well
- Some comments about things to change for next time:
- You never seem to have enough time for chats in the breakout rooms
- If the audience could have a read of the NZ Productive Commission report before the breakfast session.
- Nothing to add about changes for next time – the format is working well, nothing obvious to change!
- Thought it was a great way to start the day – keep doing what you are doing.
- The self-pitch / looking for a board position felt a bit awkward, but your ability to identify and frame people’s skills was very impressive.
- Not sure really. I enjoyed the whole thing.
- More streamlined at the start.
Some other comments and responses:
- Achieved a lot in the time allocated and all before the working day had started. Motivating start to the day and without having to battle traffic!
- Would it be possible not to put board members from the same board in the same breakout room?
- I really liked the rhythm of the Zoom session – spending a bit of time in breakout groups and having the opportunity to meet some new people, listening to Jo with Helga facilitating and then having the Q&A session. It was interactive and engaging. Thank you!
- It was my first time. I enjoyed the opportunity to meet and network with other participants. The topic was very relevant to my situation.
Thank you for the invitation, let me know next one and happy to subscribe.
