John T. Dinner

John Dinner is President of John T. Dinner Board Governance Services and has worked exclusively with boards of directors across sectors for the past 17 years to help them improve their effectiveness. He can be contacted at john@boardgovernance.ca.

Articles by John T. Dinner

• The importance of new director orientation and mentoring

  Wednesday, January 08, 2014

  ​I hear two recurring concerns among directors in the course of my boarding consulting practice: the poor quality of information provided to boards before meetings and the inadequacy of new director orientation.

• The elusiveness of good governance

  Thursday, December 12, 2013

  The achievement of good governance is elusive due to challenges that typically confront and often confound boards. These challenges tend to be somewhat common across organizations and typically relate to difficulties with sharing power, delegating authority and group decision-making. These issues, in turn, are most often related directly to the extent to which trust and confidence exists between the various boardroom players.

• Board culture trumps structure and process

  Thursday, November 14, 2013

  The basic fiduciary requirement that directors act in the best interests of the organization and exercise a duty of care is often viewed in legal terms. Similarly, director independence has been defined with respect to the relationship with staff. Both have significant behavioral and board culture implications that trump any legal or structural requirements when it comes to board effectiveness.

• Being explicit about boardroom culture

  Tuesday, October 29, 2013

  ​​In a previous article, I identified the value boards can derive from asking some deeper questions about their value, contribution and what they aspire to become as an oversight group. Those questions are a good starting point for improving the quality of governance and board performance. Not surprisingly, there are other questions a board could and should consider.

• The power of a governance vision

  Wednesday, October 09, 2013

  Most boards do not have the time to move away from pro forma agendas, and these boards would also have difficulty identifying topics outside the rather narrow boundaries of governance best practices and the like. After all, boards are primarily focused on making decisions and the discussions that lead to these decisions.

• The elusiveness of a board’s value and contribution

  Wednesday, September 25, 2013

  ​A challenge facing many boards of directors is discerning the value they bring to their organization and the contribution they make to that organization's success. The pursuit of good governance and board effectiveness has tended to focus on an ever-growing list of activities to guard against any and every risk known to mankind, particularly what might be seen as self-interest or incompetence.