There is lots of commentary out there about boards and management – all of it good, relevant stuff.
But how to organise all of this cleverness??? How to make it all visible all at the same time?
I like to get all of the ideas and see if they can be built into something memorable, something simple that does not take a lot of thinking about.
Like Circles.
Circles inside Circles.
Board Circles.
In the centre, a bit like the kernel of a nut are the core things.
Skills that make the organisation run.
Finance, people, technology, strategy, risk, and culture.
Core technical skills that have always been and will always be necessary to succeed.
Even when we carry on about the 21st century and 6 years of change in 6 months, these skills remain needed.
In our rush to the future, looking for a Golden arrow of management, these “old” skills remain necessary and central.
Necessary and central but not sufficient.
But certainly they should never be ignored.
And there are 6 of them, like the six segments of the Trivial Pursuit pie from so many years ago.
Except that these are not Trivial.
They make up the first Board Circle and are anything but Trivial.
More tomorrow…
