Board Games: The Art Of Chairmanship

Date: May 24th, 2012 Location: Royal York Hotel, Toronto
Time: continental breakfast 8:30; session: 9:00 to 4:00

Agenda - Faxable Registration - Register

All Brown Governance Seminars qualify for continuing education for all Directors College graduates!

Getting diverse people to focus and reach consensus while promoting challenge and change- this is the #1 job of a chair, and requires extraordinary skills.

Facilitator: David Brown Executive Director, Brown Governance Inc.

This one-day event is for board and committee chairs and directors who want to be more effective in the chair. Most boards and committees have largely succeeded in defining structure, charter, roles and responsibilities, but culture and behaviour are at least as important to effective functioning. In addition to examining the roles and responsibilities of the Chair this workshop will you give an opportunity to practice new skills through interactive simulations of board/committee meetings. With instant feedback from your peers, a skilled facilitator and experts in boardroom functioning, you will leave with a greater sense of your capacity for this challenging and rewarding role.

You will:

• Practice chairmanship in interactive board games that simulate board and committee meetings. And, you will:
• Receive instant constructive feedback and practical suggestions on your chairmanship style from your peers and our panel of experienced observers
• Learn how to identify and work with different personality types and problem-solving preferences, including understanding and recognizing how each is motivated and inspired in different ways
• Gain insight into the timing of meeting leadership, from dealing with dissent to knowing when to call for the vote.
• Learn how to deal with underperforming board members
• Avoid pitfalls in director peer evaluation and the evaluation of the CEO
• Learn techniques for building consensus and resolving disputes
• Understand the roles and responsibilities of the Chair

• In this opening session participants will discuss the role of the chair and its unique challenges.

• Board Game 1: In this simulated peer evaluation session, the Chair of the board is having a one-on-one meeting with one of the directors to review their peer evaluation. The director is not altogether happy with the results of the evaluation. Practice working with each of the four main personality types.

Special Guest: Wolfgang Vachon

• Board Game 2: Your board is in an in-camera meeting to discuss a performance issue with respect to the CEO. This interactive board game provides participants with an opportunity to practice chairing meetings and getting people of different personality types and preferences to work together.

• Board Game 3: In this board game, half of the board is convinced that a merger with the larger company is the best strategy for increasing shareholder value, the other half of the board is of the opinion, rather, that an aggressive acquisition strategy is the course best taken. Decide for yourself when to call for the vote.

• Open and frank dialogue with your peers on what works, what doesn’t and what can be done about it!

Facilitator: David A.H. Brown, B.Comm. (Hons), C.Dir, Executive Director, Brown Governance

David Brown is Canada’s leading thinker, speaker, writer and practitioner in corporate governance. Since 1995, David has co-founded the International Corporate Governance Centre in Montreal, the National Awards in Governance in Toronto, the Public Enterprise Governance Centre in Ottawa, and the Directors College in Niagara. Having served both as a CEO and a Board member, David is well-positioned to help corporations deal with issues at the boardroom level. David is the author of the definitive Canadian chapter in “Corporate Governance Around the World” (Routledge: 2008), the international handbook of corporate governance. He is on the faculty of the University of Toronto’s St. Michael’s College and McMaster University’s Directors College, where he teaches corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, finance and risk oversight. David currently serves as a member of Enbridge Inc.’s Expert Advisory Committee on corporate social responsibility, the Community Foundation of Ottawa’s Vital Signs committee, and the Auditor General of Canada’s Annual Report Awards adjudication panel.


Special Guest: Wolfgang Vachon

BFA (Drama in Education, Concordia University), M.Ed. (Adult Education OISE/UT)

Coming from a theatre background, Wolfgang has written, directed and performed in dozens of productions through North America, Europe and Africa. Over the past twenty years he has used interactive learning processes as a tool to educate people in numerous contexts including finance, pharmaceuticals, board directors, and social services. Wolfgang is the founder and lead facilitator of Connect To Youth (www.C2Y.org). C2Y delivers educational workshops to professionals who work with young people “at risk” or in crisis. Wolfgang is a full-time faculty member at Humber College.

CANCELLATION POLICY

If you find it necessary to cancel your registration, we will issue a full refund minus a $100 administration fee for cancellations received in writing at least 30 business days prior to the event.

The registration fee is non-refundable for cancellations made less than 30 days prior to the event. In those cases, you may transfer your registration fee to a future training course at no additional cost (for similarly priced seminars) or arrange for a substitute person to attend.

Those who do not cancel and do not attend are responsible for the full registration fee.

BGI reserves the right to cancel or reschedule and will give notice in advance. We are not responsible for penalties resulting from use of discount or other airfares.

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