The nature of meeting agendas often mean that boards rarely have the time to consider and answer some fundamentally important questions, similar to what I wrote about in my last contribution on a board's contribution and value.

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.

To ask questions outside of the board’s formal accountabilities — which are challenging enough — means finding the time, the motivation, the mind space and collective director interest for pondering broader but equally pressing questions. The time to consider questions of a more philosophical nature is at best a luxury in light of these other pressing obligations.

Pondering doesn't exactly seem to fit with monitoring, directing, supervising, overseeing and other governance-related gerunds. There are, however, some key questions directors should consider as a group with their board colleagues and staff leaders.

These questions have the ability to proactively address common governance and board effectiveness risks. These questions appear simple to answer. Of course, there are simple but rather ineffectual answers. Take the following question, for example: What does our board aspire to become?

Without some forethought, full board and staff engagement and a sense that some thoughtful consideration of the possibilities, the effort may stall at the first governance cliche. The result will lack depth, shared understanding and the needed commitment for it to be anything more than a hapless slogan.

Wrestling with this question produces what I refer to as a governance vision. I've seen the power that can come from crafting a governance vision. Transformational, in fact.

A governance vision is not a technical term. It's simply a description of how the board envisions itself some years hence. Your board, perhaps.

A governance vision is a marker anchored in the future, a destination that is different and, ideally, better than the current state. A governance vision provides a filter against which all decisions relating to how the board functions are considered.

Those decisions that move the board forward to its vision are pursued wholeheartedly and with excellence. Those opportunities that don’t move the board explicitly toward that envisioned destination are abandoned before they become a distraction and waste of resources. A governance vision builds unity, momentum, commitment, focus and, as already stated, transformational power — if constructed to do so.

But does a governance vision really work? My best proof is a client board that was severely divided. This representative board had a win/lose mindset; when one stakeholder benefited from a board decision, the other must lose.

Oversight of the organization was subsumed by a highly politicized, adversarial posture. The best interests of the organization were lost in the almost constant dust-up.

The process of crafting a governance vision delivered a near miraculous commitment to "becoming nationally recognized as one of the best boards" in the country — a bold vision for any board, let alone one that was fraught with political infighting, backroom deals and other trust destroying activities.

This vision served several functions. It united the board around a collective goal to achieve governance excellence. It provided focus for board decisions and left no room for stakeholder infighting. It provided something tangible and, as it turned out, transformational for the board to work toward.