Over time, the manner in which a board behaves – how it prepares for meetings, examines issues, produces reports, and manages changes, data, and other information. The board isn’t aware of this but a maturity framework will help them track their development.

A board management maturity assessment is more comprehensive and thorough than an annual review. These assessments also give boards a clear roadmap to take them to the next level of governance maturity.

Most boards begin at the lowest stage of management maturity. They are boards that are compliant, who understand their responsibilities and the public’s exposure but see governance as a burden to their “real” jobs of managing the business. The first step is to change boards from seeing governance as an administrative burden and towards gaining the ability to think strategically at home.

Models of maturity typically contain three to five levels which evaluate the effectiveness of governance techniques within a company. They evaluate domains such as risk management, board management and stakeholder engagement. The first stage, called Level One is usually defined by informal processes without any formal guidelines or alignment. On the other hand, the third and the second levels have more clearly defined and understood methodologies. These methods can include interviews, questionnaires, or benchmarking. Interviews can show a team’s dedication and enthusiasm for specific procedures while surveys conducted by an independent third party are more rigorous and offer more of a balanced view of a board’s current level of maturity.

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